What Happened to Amber Glenn During Her Short Program? The Devastating Reason for Her 13th Place Finish

Amber Glenn, a gold-medal contender for Team USA in women’s singles at the Milano Cortina Winter Games, placed 13th after her short program, shocking fans.
During her final jump—a triple loop—she mistimed the takeoff, completing only two rotations instead of the required three.
Thankfully, Amber still qualified for Thursday’s free skate, but it’s much less likely now that she’ll medal.

If you, like me, only watch figure skating once every four years (aka when the Winter Games roll around), you might have seen Amber Glenn’s short program last night and thought, Um? That looked pretty good to me! So why did the Team USA figure skater get 13th place? While Amber was a considered a contender for gold in the ladies’ singles competition in Milano Cortina, her near-flawless short program had a tiiiiiny error…and that mistake may have cost her an Olympic medal.

Here’s what happened: While completing the third and final jump in her skate, a triple loop jump, Amber had a clean landing—but apparently, she mistimed her takeoff. As a result, she “popped” the jump, only completing two revolutions rather than three. And because a triple jump is one of the required elements in a short program, Amber got knocked down over seven points, which is why she found herself in 13th place.

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“I don’t know what happened, I had it,” Amber could be heard saying in the Kiss-and-Cry. Ugh, my heart!

Naturally, the 26-year-old was pretty devastated…especially since, had she executed the jump as planned, she would have likely still been in gold medal contention. Thankfully, Amber’s score still qualifies her for Thursday’s free skate. Sure, she’s unlikely to podium after yesterday’s error, but anything is possible in figure skating!!

Other good news: Amber’s fellow Blade Angels, Alysa Liu and Isabeau Levito, sit in third and eighth place, respectfully, so it’s look very likely that at least one of them will podium and end Team USA’s 20-year Olympic medal drought in figure skating.

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And ofc, Amber isn’t the only figure skater from Team USA to falter on the ice during the 2026 Olympics. “Quad God” Ilia Malinin shocked fans after finishing in eighth place in the men’s figure skating final last week.

“Honestly, I still haven’t been able to process what just happened. It’s a lot of mixed emotions,” he said moments after leaving the ice and learning he placed eighth overall. “Going into this competition, I felt really good. This whole day, I felt very solid, and I just thought that all I needed to do is go out there and trust the process that I’ve always been doing with every competition. But of course, it’s not like any other competition—it’s the Olympics.”