Amber Glenn is setting the figure skating world on fire!
The pansexual American figure skater just made history at the 2026 U.S. Women’s Figure Skating Championships when she not only beat out her competition but also secured a record-breaking score that may land her on the U.S. Olympic team.
Glenn was visibly overwhelmed by emotion after her history-making win led to a standing ovation on Jan. 7. The two-time defending champion teared up when her 83.05 point score was announced after she managed to pull off a flawless opening triple axel.
“I knew that I came here to do my job,” Glenn said, according to AP News, “and I was happy to see that scores were up, scores were good, and I was able to keep them going up. I felt a responsibility to keep it going better and better and better.”
Glenn has been on an epic run. She won the same competition the previous year, becoming the first openly queer woman to win, and took home her first career Grand Prix Finale title at the end of 2024, recording the highest-ever score for an American woman in the short program.
It has been 20 years since an American woman has won an Olympic figure skating medal, but this 26-year-old LGBTQ+ athlete has the opportunity to change that at the Milano Games next month.
Glenn is poised to score a spot on her first Olympic team, which would make her the oldest U.S. Olympic women's singles skater in nearly a century, and the first openly queer woman to make the U.S. figure skating team.
Glenn came out in 2019 in an interview with the Dallas Voice after she watched American ice dancer Karina Manta announce she is bisexual.
"I did not expect it to blow up in the way that it did," she said. "But I'm grateful because they got my message out there. I was able to represent a lot of people that are in skating, especially queer women."
