There’s no pressure in sports like Olympic pressure, where years of preparation culminate in a performance that can last a matter of minutes or even seconds and where one small misstep can crush an athlete’s dreams.
If one falls short of their goals, they may or may not face another shot at achieving them four grueling years later. Few sports in the Games embody that pressure like figure skating, where athletes jump, spin and glide across ice on a blade with all eyes in the arena and millions more from around the world watching on TV. Missteps await at every turn.
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Amber Glenn’s ‘soul-crushing’ short program
U.S. skater Amber Glenn experienced such a misstep Tuesday night. A technical mistake in her short program tanked her score, threatening to shatter her Olympic dreams and leaving her in tears after her program.
It wasn’t a glaring gaffe or a fall that left her sprawled on the ice. Instead of a planed triple loop, she executed a double. And that was enough to invalidate the element and erase all seven potential points that came with it.
That dropped her from medal contention and expectations all the way down to 13th place, leaving her in need of perfection in Thursday’s free skate and a lot of mistakes by skaters ahead of her to return to contention.
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Glenn know the ramifications as soon as she landed the double, which arrived toward the end of her routine. Her face and her body language told the story as the energy and joy that marked the start of her skate was gone.
When she was done, she broke into tears on the ice and reached out for a consoling hug from her coach.
Glenn opens up
On Wednesday, she returned to the ice to practice for Thursday’s free skate. And after bypassing media availability in the pain aftermath of her skate, she explained to reporters what Tuesday night felt like to her.
“I have always been known to wear my heart on my sleeve, which is what makes me relatable, but it also makes it hard for me to hide how I feel, Glenn told reporters, per Time. “And in that moment, it was soul-crushing. Because I did the hard stuff, and it was the easiest thing, my favorite jump, that just got away from me.”
Glenn then appeared to reference a moment in men’s downhill skiing Monday when gold-medal contender Atle Lie McGrath missed a slalom gate and was immediately disqualified on his second of two runs. He responded by throwing his poles, taking off his skis and walking off the course to the adjacent woods.
“You can’t fix it,” Glenn continued. ” I didn’t get to skate off like I see in other sports, where you make a mistake and you’re done and you just kind of [go] off into the woods.
“I wish I could do that. But they expect you to smile, and they expect you to still perform, like you’re having the time of your life, when in reality your dreams were just smashed to pieces.”
Longshot medal hopes or not, Glenn is ready to reclaim her joy for skating on Olympic ice in Thursday’s free skate.
(JULIEN DE ROSA via Getty Images)
Glenn doesn’t blame Olympic pressure
Glenn said that her mistake was not a product of Olympic pressure. Sometimes things just happen, she explained.
“It wasn’t the pressure that got to me, it was just a literal lack of balance,” Glenn said. “Like, I just kind of, like lost my balance for a second. And, you know, stuff happens.”
Glenn is a vocal mental health advocate who’s spoken candidly about her struggles with depression and anxiety. She doesn’t conceal her feelings. To those familiar with her story, it was no surprise to see her wear her emotions on her sleeve Tuesday night.
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She said Wednesday it wasn’t the realization that her Olympic medal hopes were reduced to a long shot that upset her. It was that she lost the joy of the skating on Olympic ice after her fateful double loop.
Glenn intends to regain ‘happiness’ in free skate
Medal shot or not, regaining that joy of skating on Olympic ice is her goal for Thursday’s free skate.
“I was devastated because I lost the happiness and the enjoyment that I wanted to have out there on the ice to say, ‘I fought for everything, I did everything I could,’ Glenn said. “That’s what I truly wanted, and that’s what I missed out on.
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“So that’s what I’m hoping to do tomorrow. When I was little, I always imagined me doing a spiral and looking up and being like, ‘I’m at the Olympics.’ That’s what I want.”