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Olympic Champ Explains Why Amber Glenn Missed Key Points in Short Program Routine

Gold medalist Nathan Chen broke down what went wrong in Glenn’s performance on Tuesday.
Madison Williams|
Amber Glenn earned zero points in a category for an “invalid element” after failing to do a triple loop.
Amber Glenn earned zero points in a category for an “invalid element” after failing to do a triple loop. | Geoff Burke-Imagn Images

Amber Glenn lost major points in her short program routine on Tuesday after she failed to do one of her jumps. She fell to 13th place after the first round of the competition after she has been a medal-favorite at the Milan Cortina Olympics.

The failed jump was supposed to be a triple loop, but her takeoff wasn’t right, and she settled for a double loop. The judges gave her a zero in that category for an “invalid element.” She was required to do a triple jump at this point in her routine.

Former Olympic gold medalist Nathan Chen provided more context about Glenn’s score when speaking to Yahoo Sports on Tuesday. It definitely helps when a professional figure skater lays out what exactly went wrong for Glenn.

“It’s really common in skating to have a slight rush or slight slip on the takeoff, and as a result, we’ll kind of autonomously bail out, it’s called ‘popping the jump,’ from a triple to a double, from a quad to a triple or a quad to a double,” Chen explained. “... Unfortunately for the women, when they double a solo element in the short program, that invalidates their jump entirely. So, that’s where the huge point deficit came in for her.”

Chen isn’t counting Glenn out of the competition heading into Thursday’s free skate program, though. The American scored 67.39 in the short program, while Japan’s Ami Nakai sits in first with a score of 78.71. So, Glenn would have to rake up a lot of points in the free program.

“She has a really technical free program and a lot of points still on the table, so she definitely needs to take advantage in those and just do the best that she can,” Chen said.

Glenn seems to be making light of the unfortunate situation through multiple social media posts she’s shared since her devastating result. Hopefully she will bring all her star power to the ice on Thursday.

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Madison Williams
MADISON WILLIAMS

Madison Williams is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated, where she specializes in tennis but covers a wide range of sports from a national perspective. Before joining SI in 2022, Williams worked at The Sporting News. Having graduated from Augustana College, she completed a master’s in sports media at Northwestern University. She is a dog mom and an avid reader.

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