MILAN — Amber Glenn thought her chance for the Olympics was already gone. She was 9.
“I wasn’t always considered one of the top,” Glenn said, “so I never thought that I’d be skating past, like, 20 years old or something because you don’t usually see that.”
The 26-year-old, who is making her Olympic debut, jokes that she’s “a dinosaur” in women’s singles skating. But as women’s figure skating opens a new era with a minimum age limit of 17, 20-something champions could soon become common again.
The International Skating Union (ISU) increased the age limit for international competition after the Beijing Olympics when then-15-year-old Kamila Valieva was caught in a doping scandal that rocked the Games. The teenager had failed a drug test before the Olympics but was still allowed to compete because Valieva’s age made her a “protected person” under the World Anti-Doping Code.
The appeals process took days. Valieva, who had helped the Russian Olympic Committee to a team gold medal before the positive sample was revealed, was roasting under the Olympic spotlight. She wilted under the pressure during her individual event and left the ice in tears.
Four months later, the ISU announced the increased minimum age limit “for the sake of protecting the physical and mental health, and emotional well-being of the skaters.” Valieva’s results, including the team gold medal, were withdrawn in 2024.
NBC’s Johnny Weir called the ISU’s decision to raise the age limit “clever.” It also helps prolong the careers of many top women who would previously only skate in a single Olympics before a younger competitor took their place.
But the age limit doesn’t go far enough, said U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame coach Rafael Arutyunyan. If Valieva could not be held fully responsible for the medication she took because she was a child, then she should not have been allowed to compete with adults, he argued. He believes the minimum age for women’s competitions should be 18.
“You’re responsible after 18,” said Arutyunyan, who coached stars including Michelle Kwan and Mao Asada. “You compete in competition whenever you’re responsible for everything.”
As athletes progress through the sport, growth spurts or puberty can interrupt athletic progress, especially during jumps. The increased age limit, as well as the current ban on Russian athletes because of the ongoing war with Ukraine, could be one of the reasons for the lack of quadruple jumps in the women’s field in this latest Olympic cycle.
But the pressure to upgrade skills and learn the difficult jumps on joints that are still growing can be detrimental for athletes. An ISU athletes commission survey found that injury prevention was the most common response from coaches, athletes and officials in favor of increasing the age limit.
U.S. star Alysa Liu said she is not strong enough to practice quad jumps anymore. When the two-time Olympian was 14, she was the first U.S. female to land a quadruple jump. At 12, she was the youngest person to land a triple axel in international competition. Now, the 20-year-old says she practices only three triple axels a day.
“We land on one leg on a quad, like that’s a lot of force,” Liu said. “I’m not strong enough to maintain and train that without getting injured. My muscles simply cannot take it.”
But Liu is even more successful now. The 2025 world champion returns to her second Olympic Games with a fresh, mature perspective from a two-year hiatus and has already helped the United States to a gold medal in the team event. She enters the individual event that begins Tuesday as a gold medal contender.
Since 20-year-old Kristi Yamaguchi’s gold medal in 1992, only one other woman in her 20s has won the Olympic title. In 2006, Japan’s 24-year-old Shizuka Arakawa was the oldest Olympic champion since 1920.
Glenn, the first woman since Kwan to win three national championships, could also challenge for the Olympic podium. She is one of just two women who plan to execute a triple axel in their short programs Tuesday, proving that technical prowess doesn’t stop with age.
“It’s more about what pressure is felt to actually push that bar and then prove that you can consistently deliver,” said NBC analyst Tara Lipinski, who was the youngest Olympic champion in history at 15 in 1998. “It’s the cream that rises to the top because it’s the skater that is artistic, well-rounded and can technically deliver elements that maybe not everyone else is [doing] with ease and under pressure.”
It took Glenn time to develop not only the physical tools but, more important, the mental tools for this stage. Under constant scrutiny in a judged sport that often pits girls against one another from a young age, Glenn struggled with anxiety, depression and an eating disorder. She took a break from skating in 2015 to seek help at an inpatient facility. In 2019, she came out as bisexual and pansexual. The next season, she won her first national championship and has gained as much attention for her mental health and LGBTQ+ rights advocacy as for her groundbreaking triple axel.
“I’m just so grateful that I have been able to be in a place where I’m able to do this,” Glenn said, “because my physical and mental health are in a good place. I can’t even explain how hard that has been to maintain.”
After her first junior national competitions at 9 years old discouraged her from dreaming of the Olympics, Glenn is now the oldest U.S. women’s singles skater to make the Olympic team since 1928. She could be the second-oldest Olympic champion ever, trailing only inaugural champion Madge Syers in 1908.
“I think it goes to show, especially some people who might be young and think, ‘Oh, it’s too late, people are so far ahead of me at this age,’ like, you never know,” Glenn said. “Keep working toward your dreams because it can eventually happen.”
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