U.S. champion Amber Glenn earned the biggest international victory of her career and became the oldest U.S. women’s singles skater to win her first Grand Prix title.
Glenn, 25, won Grand Prix France with 210.44 points, topping Friday’s short program and placing third in Saturday’s free skate.
Glenn prevailed overall by 4.32 points over Wakaba Higuchi of Japan, who won Skate America two weeks ago. Higuchi had the top free skate but could not make up an 11.16-point deficit from the short program.
“This is proof, though, for myself,” Glenn, who worked on the mental side of the sport in the offseason, said in the kiss and cry after her final score came up. “I can do it. I’m fine.”
THE REACTIONS! 🤩
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) November 2, 2024
Amber Glenn and her coach were ecstatic when they found out she won her first Grand Prix title. #GPFigure pic.twitter.com/s1For1bGTu
Glenn landed a triple Axel in an American record short program — the most difficult jump being done in senior women’s competition this season — then had three jumping errors in the free skate: spinning out of and putting her hand down on landings of a triple Axel and triple loop and falling on a triple flip.
“I made a lot of small mistakes today that caused the fall on the flip and the hands down and that was due to both fatigue and just self-doubt,” Glenn said, according to the International Skating Union.
Glenn became the oldest women’s singles skater to win one of the seven annual Grand Prix events since Ashley Wagner at 2016 Skate America. Glenn is also the oldest first-time Grand Prix women’s singles champ from any nation since Hungary’s Júlia Sebestyén at 2006 Cup of China.
Glenn ranks third in the world this season by best total score among senior women — 212.89 from winning Lombardia Trophy in Italy in September.
Before winning the U.S. title this past January, Glenn had one career senior title at the 2018 Midwest Sectionals to qualify for the 2019 U.S. Championships. She also won the 2014 U.S. junior title.
Glenn has broken through in her mid-20s after coming back from severe concussions in summer 2020 — when she passed out in a cryotherapy tank, fell through the door and hit her head on a shoe cubby — and in summer 2023 — when she and another skater collided in a practice accident.
After winning silver at the 2021 U.S. Championships, Glenn withdrew from the 2022 U.S. Championships that determined the Olympic team due to a COVID-19 bout.
Also Saturday, world bronze medalist Adam Siao Him Fa of France jumped from eighth after the short program to win the men’s title.
Siao Him Fa, 23, totaled 246.58 points to prevail by 12.74 over Koshiro Shimada of Japan. Andrew Torgashev, the 2023 U.S. bronze medalist, was third for his first Grand Prix podium.
World champion Ilia Malinin, a 19-year-old from Virginia, won the previous two Grand Prix events and has the world’s two best scores this season of 312.55 and 301.82.
In ice dance, French champions Evgeniia Lopareva and Geoffrey Brissaud overtook two-time world medalists Charlène Guignard and Marco Fabbri of Italy after Fabbri fell during a spin their free dance.
Lopareva and Brissaud, who were eighth at last season’s worlds, totaled 195.27 points, beating the Italians by 6.19. Guignard and Fabbri own the world’s top score this season of 215.63 from Lombardia.
U.S. bronze medalists Emily Bratti and Ian Somerville took third for their first Grand Prix podium.
In pairs, Germans Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin prevailed over Italians Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii — 211.69 to 203.39 — in a duel between the last two world championships bronze medalists. Hase and Volodin now have the world’s highest and third-highest total scores this season.
The Grand Prix Series continues next week with NHK Trophy from Japan, live on Peacock.
Grand Prix France 2024 Figure Skating Results
Women
1. Amber Glenn (USA) -- 210.44
2. Wakaba Higuchi (JPN) -- 206.08
3. Rion Sumiyoshi (JPN) -- 201.35
4. Kim Chae-Yeon (KOR) -- 199.99
5. Sarah Everhardt (USA) -- 196.94
6. Nina Pinzarrone (BEL) -- 184.67
7. Mai Mihara (JPN) -- 174.93
8. Anastasiia Gubanova (GEO) -- 173.21
9. Livia Kaiser (SUI) -- 168.27
10. Lorine Schild (FRA) -- 164.32
11. Lea Serna (FRA) -- 160.91
12. Clemence Mayindu (FRA) -- 121.43
Men
1. Adam Siao Him Fa (FRA) -- 246.58
2. Koshiro Shimada (JPN) -- 233.84
3. Andrew Torgashev (USA) -- 233.64
4. Mihail Shaidorov (KAZ) -- 231.86
5. Kazuki Tomono (JPN) -- 231.48
6. Nikolaj Memola (ITA) -- 227.62
7. Aleksandr Selevko (EST) --226.11
8. Jin Boyang (CHN) — 219.05
9. Lukas Britschgi (SUI) -- 212.94
10. Luc Economides (FRA) -- 205.55
11. Camden Pulkinen (USA) -- 193.60
12. Francois Pitot (FRA) -- 183.17
Pairs
1. Minerva Fabienne Hase/Nikita Volodin (GER) -- 211.69
2. Sara Conti/Niccolo Macii (ITA) -- 203.39
3. Rebecca Ghilardi/Filippo Ambrosini (ITA) -- 176.62
4. Alisa Efimova/Misha Mitrofanov (USA) -- 171.92
5. Lia Pereira/Trennt Michaud (CAN) -- 170.67
6. Ekaterina Geynish/Dmitrii Chigirev (UZB) -- 161.99
7. Camille Kovalev/Pavel Kovalev (FRA) -- 157.04
8. Aurelia Faula/Theo Belle (FRA) -- 128.72
Ice Dance
1. Evgeniia Lopareva/Geoffrey Brissaud (FRA) -- 195.27
2. Charlene Guignard/Marco Fabbri (ITA) -- 189.08
3. Emily Bratti/Ian Somerville (USA) -- 185.88
4. Allison Reed/Saulius Ambrulevicius (LTU) -- 185.24
5. Katerina Mrazkova/Daniel Mrazek (CZE) -- 183.05
6. Leah Neset/Artem Markelov (USA) -- 176.60
7. Marie-Jade Lauriault/Romain le Gac (CAN) -- 175.85
8. Natacha Lagouge/Arnaud Caffa (FRA) -- 169.99
9. Eva Pate/Logan Bye (USA) -- 168.76
10. Marie Dupayage/Thomas Nabasi (FRA) — 161.20
