American Amber Glenn gained the ladies’s singles competitors at determine skating’s Grand Prix Closing on Saturday, ending a 14-year drought for U.S. girls within the sport’s three largest worldwide competitions.
Glenn led the sector in Grenoble, France, after Thursday’s quick program, thanks partially to being the one competitor to land a triple Axel — the leap that’s helped revitalize her profession — after which landed one other to start out Saturday’s free skate, opening a strong routine to carry off Japan’s Mone Chiba for gold.
The Grand Prix Closing is the end result of determine skating’s annual Grand Prix sequence, inviting solely the highest six skaters or pairs in every self-discipline. It’s among the many most prestigious worldwide titles within the sport, after the Olympics and the World Championships.
No American girl had gained the singles gold at any of them since 2010, when Alissa Czisny gained the Grand Prix Closing. Sarah Hughes is the final American girls’s singles Olympic champion, profitable in Salt Lake Metropolis in 2002. The final American world champion within the occasion was Kimmie Meissner in 2006. Polina Edmunds was the final U.S. winner of the 4 Continents Championships — which excludes Europe — in 2015.
Going in opposition to 5 Japanese skaters — together with Kaori Sakamoto, three-time defending world champion and defending Grand Prix Closing champion — Glenn struggled by way of Thursday’s quick program, failing to land her triple Axel cleanly and injuring her again. Nonetheless, she completed within the lead, forward of second-place Chiba by lower than some extent.
Amber Glenn leads the sector after the #GPFigure Closing girls’s quick program. 🫡
She may turn out to be the primary U.S. girl to win the Grand Prix Closing in 14 years. pic.twitter.com/k8UqISghXX
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) December 5, 2024
Then Saturday, Chiba posted a powerful 139.52 within the free skate to make issues tough for Glenn, who responded with a 142.03. Glenn gained gold with a 212.07 total rating. Chiba took silver with a 208.85. Sakamoto was third at 201.13.
As Glenn’s rating flashed throughout the display, Sakamoto, Chiba and fellow Japanese skater Wakaba Higuchi — ready to the aspect because the others in potential medal place — all smiled and flashed No. 1 indicators whereas mimicking Glenn’s end place from her free skate.
At 25, Glenn is the oldest Grand Prix Closing winner since Russia’s Irina Slutskaya gained her fourth and last title in December 2004 at 26. It units Glenn up as a prime contender at worlds, which can be in Boston from March 23-30 — lower than a 12 months out to the 2026 Olympics.
It’s been an unorthodox rise for Glenn, who in 2014 was the U.S. nationwide junior champion at 14 years previous and regarded like the way forward for the U.S. crew. However she stepped away from the game in 2015 for psychological well being causes and, when she returned, struggled to search out the identical lofty kind on the senior degree.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020 and disrupted competitions world wide, Glenn resolved so as to add the triple Axel to her repertoire. The Axel is the game’s most tough leap, starting with a ahead takeoff and requiring an additional half-rotation. Earlier than Glenn, solely 5 different American girls had landed the triple in competitors.
Saturday’s win capped a breakout 12 months for Amber Glenn, who has made herself a prime contender simply over a 12 months out from the Olympics. (Oliver Chassignole / AFP through Getty Pictures)
Glenn landed it efficiently for the primary time late in 2023, and the transfer has helped her surge to the highest of girls’s determine skating. She gained the 2024 U.S. Championships, touchdown a triple Axel in an in any other case error-prone free skate after which holding on to beat defending American champion Isabeau Levito, who fell thrice. Glenn landed the leap twice in Grand Prix occasions this season to assist win these and qualify for this weekend’s last.
Within the eight seasons since 2013-14 when each tournaments have been held (COVID canceled one or the opposite for 3 straight years from 2020 to 2022), 5 of the eight Grand Prix Closing winners have gone on to win gold at worlds.
All of it places Glenn in robust place to make her first Olympic crew, together with Levito, the silver medalist eventually 12 months’s World Championships who withdrew from a Grand Prix occasion in November and was not eligible for this weekend’s last.
Glenn was chosen as an alternate for the 2022 Video games after withdrawing from the U.S. Championships that 12 months after contracting COVID-19.
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(High photograph of Amber Glenn throughout Saturday’s free skate: Jurij Kodrun / Worldwide Skating Union through Getty Pictures)
