Amber Glenn stumbles, Alysa Liu soars on night 1 : NPR
Amber Glenn reacts to her score in the Olympic women’s short program on Tuesday. She was docked for completing a double loop instead of a triple loop, despite an otherwise strong performance.
Wang Zhao/AFP via Getty Images
hide caption
toggle caption
Wang Zhao/AFP via Getty Images
Want more Olympics updates? Subscribe here to receive our newsletter, Rachel goes to the Gamesdelivered to your inbox for a behind-the-scenes look at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.
MILAN — Figure skating at the Winter Olympics has been full of dramatic twists and turns. And Tuesday, the first night of the women’s competition, was no different: The Americans all qualified for Thursday’s medal event. But they are much later than expected.
The “Blade Angels,” as they have been nicknamed, entered Tuesday night’s short program as the country’s best hope for an individual medal in the event in two decades. But only two of them finished in the top 10.
That increases the pressure ahead of Thursday’s free skate, which accounts for the other half of their overall score.
Reigning world champion Alysa Liu is in third place, behind Ami Nakai and Kaori Sakamoto of Japan.
Towards the very end of the evening, Liu, 20, performed a powerful routine to Laufey’s “Promise” that earned her the highest score of the season and propelled her to the top of the leaderboard.
Alysa Liu’s short program on Tuesday earned her the best score of the season.
Matthieu Stockman/Getty Images
hide caption
toggle caption
Matthieu Stockman/Getty Images
She was followed by 18-year-old Isabeau Levito, whose elegant routine to “Almost In Your Arms, Zou Bisou Bisou” earned her fifth place, with a few skaters remaining. She ultimately finished the evening in eighth place.
The penultimate skater was three-time reigning U.S. champion Amber Glenn, making her Olympic debut at age 26.
Glenn kicked off her program – to Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” – with a clean triple axel, a rare feat for women at the Olympics. The rest of her routine was solid until the very last vault, which she landed as a double rather than the required triple, lowering her otherwise strong score.
She left the rink in tears and put her head in her hands after receiving a score of 67.39, as a brief silence fell over the packed crowd. Glenn, one of the favorites for medals among all women, finished the evening in 13th place.
Liu spoke to reporters below the rink as Glenn took the ice, with his routine – and reaction – visible on a television screen. Liu seemed worried about her teammate and friend.
“She’s been through so much and she works so hard…I just want her to be happy,” Liu said of Glenn. “That’s really all I want. And so I’ll see her later.”
Glenn has been a vocal advocate for mental health, publicly sharing her struggles with anxiety and depression throughout her career. She did not respond to questions from the press late in the evening.
Much of the medal hopes of U.S. skating fans now rest on Liu. It’s an ironic twist for the skater who retired as a teenager, then came back with an emphasis on creativity over competition.
After her performance on Tuesday, Liu spoke excitedly about her hopes of being invited to perform at the Olympic exhibition gala this weekend, teasing a “really cool gala program” she’s been working on that is “basically finished.”
“I don’t need a medal,” she said. “I just need to be here, and I just need to be present. And I need people to see what I do next.”
