In Milan, Glenn has already helped the U.S. capture the gold medal in team skating.<\/p>\n
PLANO, Texas \u2014 Amber Glenn\u2019s journey to gold at the Olympics is unlike anyone else\u2019s. Her skating story began at just 5 years old, when the ice was simply a place to have fun.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe started just skating for fun,\u201d her dad Richard Glenn said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were approached by the coach, and she\u2019s like, \u2018She\u2019s got some major talent.\u2019\u201d said her mom, Cathlene Glenn.<\/p>\n
That early promise came with sacrifices, shared by Amber and her parents.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019d like to say we were good parents. We raised her well. If she wanted to quit 15 years ago, we\u2019d been like, \u2018What\u2019s next?\u2019\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
Amber Glenn went on to build one of the most decorated careers in U.S. figure skating \u2014 earning a Junior National Championship and three consecutive Senior U.S. National Championships. But success didn\u2019t come without struggle.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe had a lot of ups and downs and the downs were pretty low,\u201d Richard said.<\/p>\n
One of the toughest moments came in 2022, when Glenn was forced to withdraw from nationals after contracting COVID-19.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe got COVID. It was a bad case too. It was bad,\u201d Cathlene Glenn said.<\/p>\n
The timing cost her a spot in the Beijing Olympics.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmber is very resilient. When she puts her mind to something, she sticks with it,\u201d her parents said.<\/p>\n
Rather than walk away, Glenn made a pivotal decision later that year: she stayed in skating and moved to Colorado Springs to train full time. Her comeback began to take shape, even as the odds mounted.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou wouldn\u2019t think 26 would be considered old, but in skating,\u201d they said. \u201cIt\u2019s been almost a hundred years since someone her age has been to the Olympics.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, Amber Glenn is an Olympian for the first time. Her parents are heading to Milan, Italy, to watch their daughter realize a lifelong dream \u2014 with a little excitement about the trip itself.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, that dream was realized, as Glenn helped the U.S. capture a gold medal in team skating.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe food, the shopping! I\u2019ll say those really quick!\u201d Cathlene Glenn said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not gonna buy anything there, but we\u2019re gonna look!\u201d laughed Richard.<\/p>\n
Cathlene Glenn admits competition days are stressful. She normally does not go inside the venue when she is performing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI enjoy going\u2026 he doesn\u2019t have an option,\u201d she laughed. \u201cI promised them if Amber made the Olympics I would go in and watch. I will allow them to videotape and put a mic on me, but they will not be putting a heart rate on me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beyond competition results, Glenn has used her platform to speak openly about mental health and her identity as the first openly queer figure skater.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe more fight back she gets from haters, the more she realizes we need to be more outspoken until it\u2019s normalized,\u201d Cathlene Glenn said.<\/p>\n
On the ice, she\u2019s known for one of skating\u2019s most difficult elements: the triple axel. She has one triple axel in both her short and long programs.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe goes around three-and-a-half times\u2026and lands on a tiny little blade,\u201d they said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Richard Glenn told WFAA the impact a triple axel has on the body is like jumping off the 17th rung of a ladder.<\/p>\n
In Milan, Amber Glenn will be the oldest Olympian to land the jump. Her parents say expectations are few and simple.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the rest of her life, she can say she\u2019s an Olympian,\u201d they said. \u201cI want her, when she\u2019s done, to be happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amber Glenn\u2019s story is still being written \u2014 well beyond the Olympics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Milan, Glenn has already helped the U.S. capture the gold medal in team skating. PLANO, Texas \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[160,162,161],"class_list":["post-156618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-plano","tag-plano","tag-plano-headlines","tag-plano-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}