Harry How/Getty; Steven Senne/AP Photo
NEED TO KNOW
Figure skater Amber Glenn is hoping to qualify for her first Olympic games in Milan in February
Glenn, who has been skating since she was 5 years old, became the U.S. junior women's champion at age 14 — but took a step back from the sport amid a mental health crisis
She returned after receiving treatment, and has been racking up golds since 2023
Amber Glenn has just left the ice and is still peeling off her gear as she launches into a recap of her past few weeks. The 26-year-old recently recovered from a bout of the flu and is returning from the nearly non-stop travel typical for top figure skaters before the Olympics: photo shoots and commercials squeezed between competitions; interviews scheduled while her skates are still on.
On this recent afternoon she's chatty and candid despite feeling in the moment like a bit of a "mess," she tells PEOPLE. "I'm looking forward to this journey. It's been a long, very difficult road."
The 2025 women's national champion, Glenn hopes all of her work will propel her to qualify in January for her first Winter Games, in Italy the following month. She could be the only U.S. women's singles skater over the age of 25 — and the oldest in 98 years — as well as the only American woman who can land so many famously tricky triple axel jumps, her signature.
"No matter what she does," says dad Richard, 57, "she's gonna succeed."
Despite growing up in Plano, Texas, Glenn has never been a fan of the heat. At 5 years old, she found instant respite when her mom, Cathlene, took her to a local mall's skating rink. She insists she didn't stand out on the ice, not at first, but quickly began setting goals.
"Looking back, one thing I can say is I wasn't always the most graceful or talented or amazing skater, but there was determination," she says.
International Skating Union via Getty
But Cathlene, 49, tells PEOPLE her daughter reached a milestone within her first year on the ice.
"She landed her first single axel at the age of 6," she says. "That was kind of a big deal."
Her father, a police officer, took on side jobs to help fund the costs of the sport, while her mom worked at her rink and as a nanny for her coach to get discounted lessons. "We just had to kind of find ways to help finance her sport until she started getting funding," Cathlene says.
When Glenn was 14, she became the U.S. junior women's champion.
Then her path to victory veered off course. The following year she faced a mental health crisis that led a friend to raise concerns with her parents. She entered a facility and was diagnosed with anxiety, depression and an eating disorder. (Later she learned she also has ADHD.)
It was a dark time, she says, until she found some light from her inner circle: "I thought life was done for. There was eventually a spark that kept me going, that grew from the support around me and seeking help."
In 2019, Glenn came out as pansexual — which is when someone is attracted to people regardless of their gender — when she made a casual remark about her sexuality in an interview with a local magazine.
Jason Mowry/Icon Sportswire via AP
"It was supposed to be a low-key little baby step, and then it was like, 'Oh, okay. All right. Guess we're doing this,' " she says, noting that while her remark "really took off," she had already ben out to her family and friends for a while at the time.
Still she braced for backlash. "There's hateful people out there, and you never know if one of those hateful people is gonna be a judge," she says.
Courtesy Amber Glenn
But the overwhelmingly positive reception felt like freedom, and she realized she can't control how others think: "Once I got past that, I felt like a weight was lifted off of me."
"I could really be me without any sort of judgment or preconceived notion of what I need to be like," she adds. "I feel like the expectations to be a pretty princess, you know, cookie cutter, was kind of taken back a little bit by stepping outside of the norm and just embracing who I am and saying, I'm gonna be me regardless of your opinions."
She started racking up golds in 2023, even amid other setbacks. She'd been in contention for Team USA at the 2022 Winter Olympics — before a positive COVID-19 test. The next year, she suffered a severe concussion, her second. She broke her orbital bones during both concussions, which she said caused brain damage.
Maddie Meyer/Getty
She has leaned on her parents, younger sister Brooke and coach Damon Allen, who got her through a recent anxiety attack so bad she felt like she couldn't breathe. "He's really good at bringing me back to earth," she says, while Cathlene calls Allen an "amazing human being." With Allen's help she's returning to a "more passionate, performative" style.
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During downtime, Glenn relaxes with her dog Uki, plays the Magic: The Gathering card game or catches up on anime. One of her favorites, the Death Note franchise, inspired her competition makeup (which she also shows off to her many fans on social media).
Though she's still finding balance amid the highs and lows, she's not giving up. "My story is one of resilience and getting to live my life," she says, "not perfectly, but as me."
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Harry How/Getty; Steven Senne/AP Photo NEED TO KNOW Figure skater Amber Glenn is hoping to qualify for her first Olympic games in Milan i...
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