MILAN — The worst thing about Amber Glenn’s training routine isn’t that she misses a session and ruins her score. The worst part is that by the time she does this, the most difficult part of her daily routine is already over.
Defending U.S. champion Glenn arrived in Milan with hopes of winning individual gold. Just two seconds on the ice during the women’s short program could have ruined her dreams this year, and she knew it the moment it happened.
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Glenn had already landed a triple axel jump, a move so difficult that only one other skater on the ice Tuesday had accomplished it — the night’s leader, Japan’s Ami Nakai. The triple axel is a very difficult jump where the skater enters the jump forward and ends the jump backward, actually taking 3.5 turns. Glenn is one of the few female skaters strong enough to do so, and she outscored Nakai in the event.
Seconds later, though, Glenn attempted a triple hoop, a jump she’s done thousands of times and one every skater on Tuesday’s show could pull off. But for whatever reason—nervous, frozen, fate—she missed it and only completed the double loop. In the strict mathematics of figure skating scoring, she received no points for her attempt.
If she had completed three rings in a regular time, she would have finished around fifth place and qualified to challenge for a medal. In fact, the zero ruined her score, dropping her all the way to 13th place, more than 11 points behind Nakai.
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Under the stands, Glenn’s fellow Blade Angel Alyssa Liu looked at the TV and gasped, knowing immediately what had happened. She watched quietly as Glenn struggled to complete the last 80 seconds of the short program. A tiny and cruel X scar appeared on Glenn’s score graphic on the screen.
Glenn skated to Madonna’s “Like A Prayer,” an anthem about longing, belonging and faith. She has been honing the routine all season and used it to win the U.S. Nationals in St. Louis last month. Madonna herself even recorded a short video encouraging Glenn to use the song’s vibe to score gold. Her choreography is designed to do just that.
As “Like a Prayer” moves from a soaring chorus into dancefloor percussion, Glenn launches into the more performative elements of her routine. But on Tuesday night, her eyes were far away, her smile a frozen mask. She went through her routine as if from muscle memory, the crispness of her choreography long gone.
Glenn paused at the Milan-Cortina sign, her right knee on the ice and her arms stretched out by her side. On a better night, she seemed to be showing herself to the world; on Tuesday, she seemed to be asking for help.
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As the crowd around her cheered and waved flags, tears began to flow as Ilya Marinen and Snoop Dogg tried to pull her up from above. As she reached the edge of the ice, her shoulders heaved with sadness, all the hopes, dreams, and prayers she’d had for years now lost to the ice.
“It’s understandable,” Liu said of Glenn’s grief. “She’s very strong, so she can handle it.”
Glenn gave NBC a brief on-camera interview, her answers brief and her expression calm. She then walked past a group of reporters without saying a word, the look on her face clearly visible.
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“She’s been through so much and works so hard, just like sincerely,” Liu said, with a sad, sympathetic smile on her face. “I just want her to be happy. That’s all I really want.”
