Last weekend, Amber Glenn demonstrated one of the most effective ways to show she’d come all the way back from COVID-19: a bronze medal at the US Figure Skating World Championships.
With a final score of 207.44, Glenn placed third behind gold medalist Isabeau Levito and runner-up Bradie Tennell. Additionally, all three qualified to represent the United States at the World Championships in Saitama, Japan, March 20-26.
The 23-year-old Texas native, who came out publicly as bisexual/pansexual in 2019, will be competing in her first World Championships following a couple years of missed opportunities and setbacks.
In 2021, despite taking home a silver medal at nationals, Glenn was bypassed for the US world team and named first alternate. Then last year, Glenn finished a disappointing 14th in the short program, tested positive for COVID, and had to withdraw from the competition.
“It was quite devastating,” she recalled to Fanzone’s Darci Miller. “And to see people around me and my training mates accomplishing that goal that we both had, it was hard, because we were on the same training plan. We were doing the same things, preparing the same, and to see such different results was hard.”
After recovering from the disease, and with the support of her family, friends, and significant other, Glenn switched skating coaches and chose to mount a comeback. Winning the bronze and qualifying for the World Championships is evidence that her decision was a good one.
One of her ambitions as a figure skater is to land a triple axel in competition, and she almost pulled it off during nationals, just missing the landing after successfully completing three mid-air rotations.
Despite this, Glenn still marked the night as a success for what it represented.
“Honestly, it was terrifying being back here after the conclusion of my season last year,” she admitted to NBC Sports’ Philip Hersh, “That was a big mental hurdle for me, but I was happy I was actually able to enjoy myself again and enjoy competing.”
Thanks to her bronze medal-worthy performance, Glenn will now get to enjoy competing on the world stage in Japan.
