Amber Glenn: Told to Tone It Down, She Went to the Olympics

For most of her life, Amber Glenn was told to be quieter, smaller and more graceful, and she never gave people that. At 26, the three-time U.S. women's champion arrived at the 2026 Olympics in Milan as the oldest American woman to qualify for an Olympic singles team since 1928. She had survived an eating disorder, inpatient mental health treatment and two concussions, and spent years hearing that her personality was too much.

On Olympic ice she went bigger, exactly as she wanted. She won team gold with her teammates, then recovered from a costly short program to finish fifth in the individual event. She didn't make the singles podium, and she still didn't shrink for anyone.

Amber Glenn on Dancing with the Stars

Since the Olympics, Glenn has taken that big personality from the rink to the ballroom. ABC named her to the Season 35 cast of Dancing with the Stars, revealed on Good Morning America, and she dances with pro Pasha Pashkov. The season opened with a two-night premiere on September 15 and 16, live on ABC and Disney+. ABC's own cast biography introduces her as an Olympic gold medalist and three-time U.S. national champion, and says she has used her platform to advocate for visibility, inclusion and mental health support.

ABC set Dedication Night for October 20, an episode of heartfelt performances honoring "the influential people and places that have shaped their lives." Its lineup had Glenn and Pashkov dancing a contemporary routine to "Breathe Me" by Sia, dedicated to her sister, Brooke. If you came here looking for what she has said about her eating disorder and her recovery, the section on mental health further down covers it.

Her skating season is on the calendar as well. On October 21, U.S. Figure Skating announced that she has withdrawn from Skate America in Everett, Washington, on November 13 to 15 as her run on Dancing with the Stars continues. Its Grand Prix assignments, announced in June, list her for NHK Trophy in Tokyo on November 27 to 29, and the federation notes that lineups are subject to change. The World Championships come later in the season, in Tampere, Finland, from March 17 to 21, 2027, according to the ISU's schedule.

Who is Amber Glenn?

Even if you don't follow figure skating closely, Amber Glenn matters for more than her triple Axels and her music (though her "Like a Prayer" short program really is that good). Born October 28, 1999, she grew up in Plano, Texas, and trains in Colorado Springs with coaches Damon Allen and Tammy Gambill. NBC News, citing Outsports, reported in January 2026 that she would be the first out woman to figure skate at an Olympics.

She has been unusually open about the hard parts, talking publicly about depression, anxiety, an eating disorder, ADHD and the weight of two concussions. Her way back came through treatment, therapy and years of ordinary hard work rather than one big turning point.

That matters for adult skaters, because a lot of us come to the sport with similar stories of our own, from anxiety and old trauma to body image.

Told to tone it down

Glenn's big, expressive personality showed up early, and so did the pushback. When she was about 10, she was told to tone it down because it wasn't graceful. Her mother, Cathlene, has recalled judges suggesting ways for her to fit the "ice princess" mold: cut carbs, be more graceful and, in one judge's words, "don't do that big smile anymore." For a kid whose joy was the whole point, that created real friction.

It also left her with a conflict many young athletes face, between who you are and who you think you need to be to succeed. Glenn eventually rejected the cookie-cutter image. Many adult skaters come to the sport precisely because they never fit the elite youth mold.

Mental health, an eating disorder and recovery

In 2015, the year she turned 16, struggles with depression, an eating disorder and her sexuality led to Glenn being admitted for inpatient treatment. She was diagnosed with anxiety, depression and an eating disorder, and she spent eight months away from the ice.

She returned to training in February 2016, and the work didn't stop there. A doctor diagnosed her with ADHD in 2019, and much of her training with Allen and Gambill has gone into keeping it from creeping into her long programs. Her team also studied how her heart rate spikes in competition, after a big triple Axel for example, and how to bring it back down. Her motto through all of it is "Breathe and believe."

Recovery from an eating disorder rarely looks like "getting better" in a straight line. It looks like learning to tolerate uncertainty and having uncomfortable feelings without punishing your body for them. It looks like building new relationships with food, exercise and self-worth. If skating is part of how you look after your own head, our piece on skating for mental health is worth a read.

In 2019, Glenn said publicly for the first time that she identifies as bisexual and pansexual. She has said that being herself publicly, "unapologetically," has helped her fans feel better, and that coming out "did set me free."

A positive test and two concussions

The physical setbacks came in clusters. In summer 2020 she passed out in a cryotherapy tank, fell through the door and hit her head on a shoe cubby, leaving her with a severe concussion. A practice collision with another skater knocked her out, with a black eye and a broken orbital bone. She has described the injuries as severing her "brain-body connection," and she worked her way back through neurological therapy recommended by her sports psychologist.

In between came the setback that hurt most. At the 2022 U.S. Championships, which decided the Beijing Olympic team, she tested positive for COVID-19 and withdrew after the short program, and she was named an Olympic alternate instead. "That dream that I had of making the team just slipped through my fingers," she told NBC 5 in Dallas-Fort Worth. It would be four more years before she got another shot.

Three straight U.S. titles

In spring 2022 Glenn moved to Colorado Springs to train with Allen and Gambill, and the results followed. At 2023 Skate America she landed her first clean triple Axel in competition, on her 14th try since January 2021, becoming the sixth U.S. woman to do it. Our guide to every figure skating jump explains what makes the Axel different. In January 2024 she won her first U.S. title, the first openly LGBTQ woman to do so.

The 2024-25 season was her breakout. At the Grand Prix de France her short program scored 78.14, the highest ever by a U.S. woman in international competition, breaking Gracie Gold's 76.43 from 2016, and she went on to her first Grand Prix gold. In December she won the Grand Prix Final in Grenoble, the first U.S. woman to take that title in 14 years, and in January 2025 she won a second national title.

In January 2026 in St. Louis she won a third straight title, the first woman to do that since Michelle Kwan won eight in a row from 1998 to 2005. Her free skate (150.50) and total (233.55) were personal bests, and she beat Alysa Liu to do it.

Team gold at the 2026 Olympics

At 26, Glenn was the oldest American woman to qualify for an Olympic singles team since 1928, in a discipline where elite women often peak in their late teens. She went to Milan as one of the "Blade Angels," the nickname she, Alysa Liu and Isabeau Levito voted on for themselves at Liu's suggestion. Their friendship, a refreshing change from past Olympic rivalries, became one of the stories of the Games.

Her first job was the team event. On February 8 she finished third in the women's free skate with 138.62, earning eight points, and the U.S. won gold by a single point over Japan. Our guide to every Olympic figure skating event explains how the team event works, and our 2026 Olympics roundup has every result.

Her free skate music, "I Will Find You" by Audiomachine and "The Return" by CLANN, made headlines of its own. After the team event, CLANN's Seb McKinnon said on social media that he was surprised his song had been used, and the two smoothed out the copyright question within days. Our explainer on the music rules of figure skating covers how program music gets cleared.

Then came the individual event, and her short program to Madonna's "Like a Prayer." It's a big, theatrical program, which is exactly what she was told not to be as a young skater. Just before she skated her short program, Madonna sent her a video message telling her she was "so strong, so beautiful, so brave" and to "go get that gold." Glenn was visibly stunned: "I'm in complete shock."

She opened with a clean triple Axel, a jump only one other woman in the field performed, but late in the program her planned triple loop came out as a double. Under the judging system that made it an invalid element worth zero points, and she sat 13th with 67.39.

Two days later she delivered a nearly flawless free skate, landing the triple Axel again, for a season-best 147.52, the third-best free skate of the night. She held the top spot until the final handful of skaters and finished fifth with 214.91. Alysa Liu won gold, ahead of Kaori Sakamoto, Ami Nakai and Mone Chiba.

Why her story matters to adult skaters

Most of us aren't training for the Olympics or skating for a living, but a lot of her story carries over to the rest of us.

She was told for years to make herself smaller, and she made the Olympic team by doing the opposite. You don't have to shrink yourself to learn to skate either.

Many adult skaters also come to the sport carrying their own histories of mental health challenges, eating disorder struggles or physical trauma. Glenn has talked about all of it in public, and she's still skating.

Figure skating culture often treats age as a ticking clock, and Glenn went to her first Olympics at 26 anyway. As an adult skater you know yourself in ways younger skaters don't yet, and that helps. Deanna Stellato-Dudek skated the same Games at 42.

If her story has you thinking about your own, we'd love to hear it, so share your skating story with us. There are adult skaters at every stage, from people who have never stood on the ice to people coming back after a long break. And if you're ready to begin, our guide to starting figure skating as an adult walks you through your first steps.

Sources

This story draws on contemporary reporting and official results. Quotes are attributed to the outlet that first published them.

• U.S. Figure Skating, Glenn becomes first woman to win three consecutive U.S. titles since Michelle Kwan (January 2026).
• U.S. Figure Skating, Glenn wins short program in record fashion at Grand Prix de France (November 2024).
• NBC Sports, report on Glenn's first clean triple Axel at 2023 Skate America (October 2023).
• NPR, U.S. women's figure skaters could've been rivals. Instead, they're the "Blade Angels" (February 2026).
• NBC News, Amber Glenn finishes just off the podium after a high-scoring free skate (February 2026).
• Golden Skate, feature on Glenn's "Breathe and believe" motto.
• ABC, 'Dancing with the Stars' 2026 Cast Revealed (September 2026).
• ABC press release, 'Dancing with the Stars' Brings Heart and Meaning to the Ballroom with 'Dedication Night' on ABC and Disney+ (October 2026).
• U.S. Figure Skating, Final U.S. Entries for 2026 Saatva Skate America Announced (October 2026).
• U.S. Figure Skating, U.S. National Team 2026 Grand Prix Assignments Announced (June 2026), and the ISU, ISU Figure Skating World Championships 2027 Schedule (June 2026).
• NBC News, She's a contender to win Olympic gold. She says coming out is a big reason why (January 2026), and NBC Out, Figure skater Amber Glenn says embracing her sexuality 'unapologetically' has helped her fans (June 2025).
• ISU results, Olympic Winter Games 2026 team event standing and team event women's free skate (February 8, 2026).
• ISU results, Olympic Winter Games 2026 pairs result (February 2026), and CBC Sports, Canada's Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps make Olympic debut in pairs figure skating (February 2026).
• Reporting by the Associated Press, NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth, People, the Denver Gazette, CP24 and NBC Olympics.