Amber Glenn knew she needed to leave it all on the ice heading into her final performance at the Winter Olympics and she entered her free skate with one of the most difficult routines.
She ended it pumping her first into the air with pride and a score that, at least at the time, catapulted her into first place.
“Total redemption,” Olympian and host Scott Hamilton said after her skate.
Glenn sat in 13th place following the women’s short program Tuesday, where she saw an uncharacteristic misstep that cost her heavily.
The same jump that left her nearly out of podium contention caused her trouble in the free skate, when she touched the ice on landing her final jump of the performance.
The six before that? Nearly flawless.
“That was one of the best triple axels I have ever seen from her,” Olympic gold medalist and commentator Tara Lipinski said.
Glenn was one of just two female skaters attempting the triple axel – 3 1/2-revolution jump – in the Olympics.
As she finished her performance she threw her fist into their, then appeared to say she was “this close.”
“Just seeing her reaction there at the end, this was more than podiums or medals. This was for her to fight in this free skate. She wanted to have an Olympic skate that she enjoyed. I don’t know if she could have asked for a better one,” Lipinski said.
Commentator Terry Gannon called the skate a “statement made” and Olympian and commentator Johnny Weir said Glenn “fought so hard” and was “absolutely flying.”
As she left the ice, Glenn could be heard telling her coach she was “locked in.” Her score of 147.52 lifted her into first, with 12 skaters left to go.
“I didn’t fall at the Olympics,” Glenn was heard saying.
“She killed it. I’m really happy for her,” teammate Alysa Liu, the top-ranked U.S. skater after the short program, said after watching the performance.
Glenn’s falter in the short program was unexpected. The three-time reigning U.S. champion was right in the mix until her final jump.
After landing a huge opening triple axel she kept the momentum going with a triple flip-triple toe loop. But something seemed amiss as Glenn approached her triple loop, and she wound up bailing out of it. The resulting double loop became an invalid element and earned her no points.
The lost points on the jump, somewhere in the range of seven or eight, was the difference in being a contender entering the free skate.
“This is heartbreaking to watch,” Lipinski said at the time.
As her program came to an end, Glenn appeared visibly emotional, kneeling on the ice as tears streamed down her face.
“I had it,” Glenn told her coach, Damon Allen, as she tried to hold back the tears stepping off the ice.
“It’s not over,” he replied.
And it wasn’t.
Glenn entered the free skate with a weight seemingly lifted.
“Never even thought that I’d get here so that in itself is an accomplishment,” she told reporters before her skate.
“I am here and I want to enjoy that,” she added.
That’s exactly what she did.
