Why Amber Glenn, Mikaela Shiffrin and redemption shined brightest for Team USA in Milan

There was a moment when it was written on Amber Glenn’s face.

She glided across the Olympic rings during her free skate routine. Her face lit up as she almost pulled off one of the most improbable feats in USA figure skating history.

Glenn rose from No. 13 in the standings all the way to the top. Her 214.90 score placed her in first before Team USA teammate Alysa Liu and the Japanese trio of Mone Chiba, Kaori Sakamoto and Ami Nakai eventually knocked her off the podium.

Liu ended the 24-year USA figure skating drought with a gold medal, writing a peak chapter of her own comeback story. That’s one of many that have been written in Italy this February.

The struggles and tribulations Team USA endured might have taken center stage early on in the Games. 

But as the Games come to a close, I won't remember the struggles. I'll remember redemption as the lasting trend that will stay with Team USA from the 2026 Games.

What we know:

Team USA had suffered in Milan.

Lindsey Vonn fighting through an ACL tear, only to suffer a broken leg in a crash is a weight for those who truly appreciate what she’s meant to the sport and to the nation. Mikaela Shiffrin’s wait to end her Olympic drought lingered. Ilia Malinin’s expected coronation came crashing down in his free skate performance. Amber Glenn's slight short-program mistake dropped her to 13th place.

These moments hurt when you put into perspective how these athletes work so consistently for a shot at Gold once every four years.

It also puts into perspective just how dangerous the Winter Olympics can be. They’re not falling on a cushion of snow. It’s usually rock-solid ice that needs to be durable enough to last for three weeks’ worth of competitions.

But there’s always a light. 

That light was Glenn’s Olympic moment in her free skate. It was Alysa Liu winning gold at 20-years-old after walking away from the sport in 2022. It was Team USA’s stunning comeback to beat Canada. It was Shiffrin returning to the top of the podium and earning Gold, only to reveal the grief she was enduring after her father’s passing.

I refuse to let all the struggles dictate how we should view Team USA, especially Glenn and Shiffrin. Especially when we saw performances that still left us inspired.

Watching Glenn rise from 13th to fifth was a statement. That kind of rise doesn't just happen at the Olympics. It was redemption in its purest form. 

Even without a medal, she made history. She’s the second American woman to land a triple axel on Olympic ice. I was there when Mirai Nagasu was the first to do it. A historic moment like that sent a shock down my spine in Korea.

Yeah, Mirai did it. Glenn did the damn thing, too.

But it was more than just her triple axel. Glenn was performing her routine at the level she wanted to be at. When Glenn nailed her triple axel with perfect form, she made it look routine instead of historic. 

She’s as talented as she is artistic. It made the short program feel like a faux pas. That wasn't Glenn. This was Glenn, in all her stunning artistry and technical prowess.

Before Milan, she courageously opened up about how she's fought depression, anxiety, an eating disorder and ADHD across her skating career. 

Those struggles will never come close to the moment when she glided across the Olympic Rings at center ice. That became her lasting image, not the tears as she left following her short program.

"I told myself, no matter how the program was going to go, I was going to look up and tell myself, ‘You're at the Olympics,’ and I did that. I'm just really proud of that moment," Glenn told reporters in Milan. "It's something I'll never forget, and I've had the moment that I've always dreamed of. I'm really going to hang on to that."

Her redemption story peaked with a performance where she left injuries and struggles no ordinary human is meant to endure behind. They meant nothing. All that remains is a free skate that captured who she is as a skater, performer and artist.

Glenn’s free skate performance won an Olympic championship in my heart. I’m willing to bet I’m not the only one who feels that way. She's already a Gold medalist in the figure skating team event.

To quote Liu after her free skate to clinch a Gold medal: "That’s what I’m f***ing talking about!"

Redemption doesn’t always need to reclaim status. It doesn’t even need to happen days later. It can serve as a reminder.

Shiffrin was already the Greatest of All-Time in her sport, a moniker casually given out too liberally, with 108 World Cup wins and two Olympic Gold medals. Adding that third Gold after getting shut out in Beijing is a reminder that she’s exactly that: GOAT.

It was a reminder that was four long years in the making, but the greatest ever are the ones who dictate their status instead of anyone else.

These are all chapters we can go back and read as a reminder that our trials and tribulations don’t define us.

The best athletes on the world’s biggest stage dictate their own stories.

What I'll remember the most is how Glenn and Shiffrin earned their Olympic moments in the Milan Games, which brought us plenty of show-stopping moments.

What's next:

Redemption doesn’t end in Milan.

Malinin is only 21 years old. After his free skate, he mentioned he wouldn’t have struggled if Team USA sent him to Beijing in 2022 instead of leaving him off the roster after Vincent Zhou and Jason Brown turned in more consistent bodies of work across the entire season of senior-level participation.

But, Malinin will be back.

Olympic pressure isn’t a cliché. Figure skaters are among the Olympians who feel it the most. It’s just them on the ice. The loneliness contrasts with the thought of how the world is watching this exact moment and with how they’re in the most unforgiving sport in the world. 

It creates a pressure chamber that forces many to crack. Malinin wasn’t exempt from this.

Malinin will have a chance to respond. It’s painful to think he’ll need to wait four years for it, but that’s the nature of the Olympics.

Liu is a perfect example for Malinin to follow. Her struggle was losing the joy in skating after the 2022 Games. She said before the Games she came to hate figure skating. It was clear as she reclaimed joy on her own terms, both as she skated and after her programs.

"It wasn’t just my retirement that taught me," Liu told reporters. "Everything in general has led me to this point."

Now, Malinin is next to claim what he wants.

That story will be written in 2030.

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