Amber Glenn Wins 3rd Figure Skating Championship In A Row Ahead Of Olympic Debut
Amber Glenn is the first woman to win three consecutive U.S. Figure Skating Championships since Michelle Kwan – and will be the first openly queer woman to represent the U.S. on the Olympic Figure Skating team.
Featured Image: Amber Glenn at 2026 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Jan. 9, 2026 (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
On Friday night, Amber Glenn triple-axeled her way to victory at the 2026 Prevagen U.S. Figure Skating Championships in St. Louis, MO, and became the first woman since Michelle Kwan to win three consecutive titles, joining an elite list that includes Dorothy Hamill, Janet Lynn, and Peggy Fleming. Glenn, who identifies as bisexual and pansexual, beat current world champ Alysa Liu, just one month out from the 2026 Winter Olympics. The Texas native also set new personal bests, scoring 150.50 for the free skate and an overall total of 233.55 points.
And if that wasn’t fantastic enough, her weekend only got better with Sunday’s formal announcement: Glenn was selected for one of three spots on the U.S. Olympic Team and will be sharpening her blades for the Games, which get underway in February, in Milano Cortina, Italy. Alysa Liu and Isabeau Levito round out the team.
“I can’t wait to get back home and train,” she told the media following the announcement. “I’m so thrilled to be able to have the privilege of representing my country at the Olympics. I can’t wait. I’m so excited. I hope I can make my country and myself proud.”
Skating to Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” with the crowd singing in the background, Glenn had opened her record-smashing performance on Friday night with a flawless triple axel, followed by two combinations with a heavy wow-factor – a triple flip-triple toe loop and a triple loop-double axel-double axel sequence that garnered 10.86 and 14.12 points, each.
“I’m still in disbelief, honestly,” Glenn said of her performance. “The ladies were on fire this competition, and I couldn’t be more proud of how far we’ve come as far as Team USA. I had, of course, a performance of my life on Wednesday and was so happy with it and going forward I want to bring the same energy to my free skate. I think I stayed calm and handled the pressure well, but I want to get that same exciting feeling that I did in the short program into the free skate going forward.”
Related: Same-Sex Ice Skating Dance Duo To Compete This Month In Finland Following Rule Change
Much to our delight, Glenn has also earned the honor of being the first openly queer woman named to a U.S. Figure Skating team to represent in the Winter Olympics. She has also been recognized as the first openly LGBTQ+ woman to win a U.S. Figure Skating Championship title (January 2024). Glenn came out publicly as “bisexual/pansexual” when she spoke with the Dallas Voice in December 2019. “The fear of not being accepted is a huge struggle for me,” she said. “Being perceived as [going through] ‘just a phase’ or [being] ‘indecisive’ is a common thing for bisexual/pansexual women.”
“I don’t want to shove my sexuality in people’s faces, but I also don’t want to hide who I am.”
Full results of the Championships, which took place from Jan. 4 – Jan 11, 2026, can be found here.
Image via Instagram, Amber Glenn
