MILAN — Amber Glenn didn’t expect to be in medal contention after a disappointing short program this week at the Olympics. She entered Thursday’s figure skating single competition in 13th place with a lot of ground to make up against the best figure skaters in the world.
But after an exhilarating free skate performance resulted in a 147.52 score — the third-best on the night — she hung on to the top of the leaderboard till the final handful of skaters knocked her off the podium, finishing in fifth place.
Glenn said she was happy to provide fans, and herself, with a bounce back routine at the Milan Cortina Games.
“I did my job,” she told NBC News. “I made sure to have that moment in the sequence where I acknowledged, ‘Hey, I’m here at the Olympics and I’m on my feet.’ So overall, I’m pretty satisfied.”
Glenn had a near-flawless skate.
She nailed her triple axel, the hardest jump of the competition and one that only she and one other skater attempted. Glenn also landed several difficult jumping passes, including a triple flip-triple toe loop combination and a triple loop-double axel-double axel combination. But on her final jump, a triple loop, Glenn put her hand down, losing some points in an otherwise stellar performance.
The mistake hurt her score — and potentially cost her a medal. Despite the fall, she said she was happy with her performance.
“If I had skated how I did today, I thought maybe it’d be possible” to medal, she said. “And I was only, like, two points away from winning the free skate. Oh, my gosh, a silly little mistake cost me, but overall, I’m just so happy.”
That silly mistake was in the short program when she did a double loop rather than a triple, meaning it was marked as an invalid element and she received zero points.
But Glenn scored so highly in the free skate that she sat on the side of the podium for more than an hour waiting out the scores. It wasn’t until Mone Chiba of Japan, the fourth skater from the end, posted a 217.88 that she was out of first place overall.
Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto and Ami Nakai and Glenn's teammate Alysa Liu followed and overtook her score, knocking her off the podium.
Glenn said she was “conflicted” watching every skater after her perform.
“Of course I want to see everyone do their best, but when you see the ‘needs to score’ lower and lower and lower, it’s kind of a little agonizing,” she said. “But overall, I’m happy that my teammate was able to come in and do her best and win.”
Glenn was referring Liu, the 20-year-old American star who won gold Thursday night with a 150.20 free skate score and a 226.79 total.
“I’m so proud of her,” Glenn said. “The message that this is going to send to young athletes and parents alike is that if you consider your mental health and treat it right, great things can happen.”
Liu actually told NBC News that Glenn's performance helped push her to another level in her own routine.
“I watched Amber on the bus on the way here, and she did so good,” Liu said. “It was inspiring to watch.”
