Amber Glenn Had Saddest Reaction to Her Brutal Mistake in Women’s Short Program

The American figure skating star finished in 13th place on Tuesday.

Amber Glenn struggled in her short program routine to finish in 13th place. | Joosep Martinson/Getty Images

The three-time U.S. champion women’s figure skater Amber Glenn was seen as a favorite to medal in the singles competition at the Milan Cortina Olympics.

She came in to Tuesday’s women’s short program, the first of two events for the medal, alongside two other American skaters—Alysa Liu and Isabeau Levito. Glenn went second to last in the competition and started off strong with a triple axel in her routine to Madonna’s “Like a Prayer.”

However, Glenn failed to do one of her jumps, giving her a zero in the technical skill category—marked down as an “invalid element”—and there was a clear shift in her confidence from there on out. As soon as Glenn’s performance ended, she remained on the ice with the saddest look on her face. As she bowed to the audience, she held back tears.

Glenn skated off the ice and immediately started crying into the arms of her coach Damon Allen. She could be heard saying “I had it.”

Amber Glenn filled with emotion after finishing in 13th place, scoring a 67.39 in short program qualifying 🥹 pic.twitter.com/thfixBR4uf

— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) February 17, 2026

With a score of 67.39 in the short program, Glenn finished in 13th place in Tuesday’s competition. Her mistake cost her seven technical points from her score. It’ll be extremely difficult for her to medal on Thursday following the free skate.

Glenn’s Team USA teammate Liu could win a medal on Thursday, which would end a 20-year drought of American female skaters not medaling in singles events at the Olympics. Liu finished third with a score of 76.59, which is her personal best, after a pretty flawless routine on Tuesday. Levito finished eighth with a score of 70.84.

Japan’s Ami Nakai (78.71) and Kaori Sakamoto (77.23) sit in first and second place, respectfully.

Team USA’s devastating figure skating results at Milan Cortina Olympics

Glenn isn’t the first American figure skater to have a devastating moment at the Milan Cortina Olympics this year. Although Team USA started by winning the gold medal in the team event, the Americans have struggled in all of the figure skating events since.

To start, Madison Chock and Evan Bates were involved in a scoring controversy after placing second in ice dancing. France’s Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron took home the gold even though there were noticeable mistakes in their routine. It was later discovered that a French judge scored Beaudry and Cizeron much higher than the American duo in both the rhythm and free dance routines. On Wednesday, the French judge scored the former 7.71 points higher than the latter, while the other judges didn’t give either team more than a 4.1-point advantage in any category.

Chock and Bates stated that there could be some improvement made about the Olympic judge vetting process, but the International Skating Union responded by defending the judging process and emphasizing how there will always be a range of scores. U.S. Figure Skating elected to not appeal the results.

Then, gold medal favorite Ilia Malinin failed to medal in the men’s individual program as he made mistakes in his free skate routine. Malinin, like Glenn, was visibly upset after his performance. He has since posted online about his mental health struggles. But, he shared on Tuesday that he’s had a strong support system around him, and has heard from legendary athletes like Tom Brady, Steph Curry and Simone Biles. Glenn already had support from music legends Madonna and Taylor Swift before the short program on Tuesday, and she’ll likely experience a similar reaction to Malinin.

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