{"id":180123,"date":"2026-02-16T13:49:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T13:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/180123\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T13:49:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T13:49:11","slug":"after-years-of-trauma-u-s-stars-are-grateful-skating-is-changing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/180123\/","title":{"rendered":"After years of trauma, U.S. stars are grateful skating is changing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

MILAN\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Amber Glenn<\/a> thought her chance for the Olympics was already gone. She was 9.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t always considered one of the top,\u201d Glenn said, \u201cso I never thought that I\u2019d be skating past, like, 20 years old or something because you don\u2019t usually see that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old, who is making her Olympic debut, jokes that she\u2019s \u201ca dinosaur\u201d in women\u2019s singles skating. But as women\u2019s figure skating opens a new era with a minimum age limit of 17, 20-something champions could soon become common again.<\/p>\n

The International Skating Union (ISU) increased the age limit for international competition after the Beijing Olympics when then-15-year-old Kamila Valieva was caught in a doping scandal<\/a> that rocked the Games. The teenager had failed a drug test before the Olympics but was still allowed to compete because Valieva\u2019s age made her a \u201cprotected person\u201d under the World Anti-Doping Code.<\/p>\n

The appeals process took days. Valieva, who had helped the Russian Olympic Committee to a team gold medal before the positive sample was revealed, was roasting under the Olympic spotlight. She wilted under the pressure during her individual event and left the ice in tears.<\/p>\n

Four months later, the ISU announced the increased minimum age limit \u201cfor the sake of protecting the physical and mental health, and emotional well-being of the skaters.\u201d Valieva\u2019s results, including the team gold medal, were withdrawn in 2024. <\/p>\n

NBC\u2019s Johnny Weir called the ISU\u2019s decision to raise the age limit \u201cclever.\u201d It also helps prolong the careers of many top women who would previously only skate in a single Olympics before a younger competitor took their place.<\/p>\n

But the age limit doesn\u2019t go far enough, said U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame coach Rafael Arutyunyan. If Valieva could not be held fully responsible for the medication she took because she was a child, then she should not have been allowed to compete with adults, he argued. He believes the minimum age for women\u2019s competitions should be 18.<\/p>\n

\"American <\/p>\n

American Alysa Liu competes during the figure skating women\u2019s team event at the Winter Olympics in Milan on Feb. 6.<\/p>\n

(Stephanie Scarbrough \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re responsible after 18,\u201d said Arutyunyan, who coached stars including Michelle Kwan and Mao Asada. \u201cYou compete in competition whenever you\u2019re responsible for everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

As athletes progress through the sport, growth spurts or puberty can interrupt athletic progress, especially during jumps. The increased age limit, as well as the current ban on Russian athletes because of the ongoing war with Ukraine, could be one of the reasons for the lack of quadruple jumps in the women\u2019s field in this latest Olympic cycle.<\/p>\n

But the pressure to upgrade skills and learn the difficult jumps on joints that are still growing can be detrimental for athletes. An ISU athletes commission survey found that injury prevention was the most common response from coaches, athletes and officials in favor of increasing the age limit.<\/p>\n

U.S. star Alysa Liu<\/a> said she is not strong enough to practice quad jumps anymore. When the two-time Olympian was 14, she was the first U.S. female to land a quadruple jump. At 12, she was the youngest person to land a triple axel in international competition. Now, the 20-year-old says she practices only three triple axels a day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe land on one leg on a quad, like that\u2019s a lot of force,\u201d Liu said. \u201cI\u2019m not strong enough to maintain and train that without getting injured. My muscles simply cannot take it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Liu is even more successful now. The 2025 world champion returns to her second Olympic Games with a fresh, mature perspective from a two-year hiatus and has already helped the United States to a gold medal in the team event. She enters the individual event that begins Tuesday as a gold medal contender.<\/p>\n

Since 20-year-old Kristi Yamaguchi\u2019s gold medal in 1992, only one other woman in her 20s has won the Olympic title. In 2006, Japan\u2019s 24-year-old Shizuka Arakawa was the oldest Olympic champion since 1920.<\/p>\n

Glenn, the first woman since Kwan to win three national championships, could also challenge for the Olympic podium. She is one of just two women who plan to execute a triple axel in their short programs Tuesday, proving that technical prowess doesn\u2019t stop with age.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s more about what pressure is felt to actually push that bar and then prove that you can consistently deliver,\u201d said NBC analyst Tara Lipinski, who was the youngest Olympic champion in history at 15 in 1998. \u201cIt\u2019s the cream that rises to the top because it\u2019s the skater that is artistic, well-rounded and can technically deliver elements that maybe not everyone else is [doing] with ease and under pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n

It took Glenn time to develop not only the physical tools but, more important, the mental tools for this stage. Under constant scrutiny in a judged sport that often pits girls against one another from a young age, Glenn struggled with anxiety, depression and an eating disorder. She took a break from skating in 2015 to seek help at an inpatient facility. In 2019, she came out as bisexual and pansexual. The next season, she won her first national championship and has gained as much attention for her mental health and LGBTQ+ rights advocacy as for her groundbreaking triple axel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just so grateful that I have been able to be in a place where I\u2019m able to do this,\u201d Glenn said, \u201cbecause my physical and mental health are in a good place. I can\u2019t even explain how hard that has been to maintain.\u201d<\/p>\n

After her first junior national competitions at 9 years old discouraged her from dreaming of the Olympics, Glenn is now the oldest U.S. women\u2019s singles skater to make the Olympic team since 1928. She could be the second-oldest Olympic champion ever, trailing only inaugural champion Madge Syers in 1908.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it goes to show, especially some people who might be young and think, \u2018Oh, it\u2019s too late, people are so far ahead of me at this age,\u2019 like, you never know,\u201d Glenn said. \u201cKeep working toward your dreams because it can eventually happen.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILAN\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Amber Glenn thought her chance for the Olympics was already gone. She was 9. \u201cI wasn\u2019t always considered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[66068,6948,80832,85527,48,52,51,47,50,49,85523,85528,10012,10500,80829,7496,85524,85526,85525,1557,72],"class_list":{"0":"post-180123","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-amber-glenn","9":"tag-athlete","10":"tag-international-competition","11":"tag-isu","12":"tag-la","13":"tag-la-headlines","14":"tag-la-news","15":"tag-los-angeles","16":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","17":"tag-los-angeles-news","18":"tag-minimum-age-limit","19":"tag-old-olympic-champion","20":"tag-olympics","21":"tag-pressure","22":"tag-skater","23":"tag-sport","24":"tag-team-gold-medal","25":"tag-triple-axel","26":"tag-valieva","27":"tag-woman","28":"tag-year"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}