A North Texas figure skater won the 2024 U.S. Figure Skating Championship on Friday in Columbus, Ohio.
Amber Glenn, a Plano native, outlasted defending champion Isabeau Levito, even after thinking she missed her chance to claim the crown.
“It wasn’t exactly how I wanted to get my first national title,” Glenn told NBC Sports. “It was a mix of being extremely grateful for the results but also knowing I can do so much better.”
According to the Associated Press, Glenn’s routine featured several complicated moves, including a triple axel, which she landed in the early portion of Friday’s competition. However, she fell short on two jumps later in the routine and had to wait for Levito’s results after entering the final day of competition in second place.
“I saw my choreographer and said, ‘I’m so sorry,'” Glenn told AP. “I didn’t do nearly what she had for me in this program.”
Levito fell three times during her routine, dropping to third place and allowing Glenn to take the win with an overall score of 210.46, edging out Josephine Lee by 6.33 points.
The win gives Glenn her first title in 11 tries at the U.S. Championships. Her best previous finish was a second-place performance in 2021, and she finished in third place in 2023 after having to withdraw from the competition due to a positive COVID-19 diagnosis.
Now, Glenn is eager to continue to show what she can do as she continues her career after learning from previous experiences as a junior competitor.
“I know I have so much more left in me,” she told AP. “Ten years ago, I won junior [nationals], and the world of expectations were put upon me, and it crushed me. And now, coming back 10 years later and having this — it’s incredible.”
The next event on the U.S. Figure Skating schedule is this week’s ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships in Shanghai, but Glenn does not appear on the list of participants.