Amber Glenn has soared to the top of international figure skating and proved she belonged there Saturday with an historic victory in the Grand Prix Final.
Glenn became the first American to win the women's Grand Prix Final competition since Alissa Czisny 14 years ago as three-time world champion Kaori Sakamoto had to settle for third place.
That continues a stunning breakout season at the age of 25 for the Texas-born skater, who is unbeaten in 2024-25, and caps a year which began with her first U.S. national title in January. Glenn admitted it's hard to get used to being on the top step of the podium.
“I’m exhausted,” she said. "It has been a whirlwind of a season and I’ve kind of struggled with this imposter syndrome. Just: ‘Oh, no, no, I’m not winning. That’s not me.’ And I’m just happy my hard work is finally showing, and this is a great event, and I’m honored to even be here."
Get top local stories in Southern California delivered to you every morning. >Sign up for NBC LA's News Headlines newsletter.
Skating last in the six-woman field against five Japanese skaters, there was little sign of the pain which had bothered Glenn in Thursday's short program.
Glenn started with an emphatic triple axel and overcame a slight wobble part-way through her free skate — doubling a planned triple salchow and slightly under-rotating a triple flip — to finish strongly and score a total 212.07 for the win.
Mone Chiba, a silver medalist at both her Grand Prix events this season, was second again on 208.85. World champion Sakamoto had been out of form in the short program but recovered with a strong free skate to the musical “Chicago" for bronze on 201.13.
Sports
Get today's sports news out of Los Angeles. Here's the latest on the Dodgers, Lakers, Angels, Kings, Galaxy, LAFC, USC, UCLA and more LA teams.
The U.S. could win two more titles later Saturday. Ilia Malinin leads the men's event ahead of the free skate and Madison Chock and Evan Bates lead the ice dance.
