Three-time U.S. national champion Amber Glenn delivered Team USA eight points, skating the women’s free skate in the Olympic team event final and finishing 3rd behind Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto and Georgia’s Anastasiia Gubanova. Glenn’s skate gave the U.S. enough points to tie with Japan after the segment, and Team USA still has a shot to take gold.
Despite a shaky start with a turn out of her triple Axel – an element that few women’s figure skaters can complete in competition – Glenn was able to rally, with no major errors and a solid skate that had her in complete control.
“I’m happy I was able to fight through the program and stay committed to everything,” Glenn said moments after her Olympic debut. “I’ve been practicing here incredibly, I’ve been feeling really good, and I think I just had some fatigue, and I need to really manage that going into the individual event. But I’m really proud of the mental strength that I’ve built over the years to be able to get through some mistakes in the beginning and really fight in the second half.”
Sakamoto closed the women’s free skate in top form, winning the segment for Japan with the kind of power and speed that have defined her championship résumé. “Seeing that I scored number one in the women’s category tonight was a big deal, and I felt really emotional,” Sakamoto said after skating.
The 2022 Olympic bronze medalist and three-time world champion leaned into the drama of her Edith Piaf medley, earning the top score of the group and underscoring why Japan entered Milan as the main Team USA challengers for the overall team title.
In 3rd place, Georgia’s 2023 European champion Gubanova, brought her trademark expressiveness to selections from “Ghost – The Musical,” continuing a season in which she helped Georgia qualify in every discipline and contend in the team event.
Finishing the event in 4th place in front of a home crowd, Italy’s Lara Naki Gutmann — the reigning European bronze medalist — provided another momentum performance for the hosts with her “Jaws”-inspired free skate, a program that has become one of the season’s most recognizable.
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Canada opened the women’s free skate segment with Madeline Schizas. The four-time national champion, skating in her second Olympics, set the tone early, earning a season’s best and collecting six points for her team in the final to “Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto,” in a tight race for team bronze.
Women’s free skate results:
- Kaori Sakamoto (Japan) — 148.62
- Anastasiia Gubanova (Georgia) — 140.17
- Amber Glenn (United States) — 138.62
- Lara Naki Gutmann (Italy) — 126.94
- Madeline Schizas (Canada) — 125.00
