They call themselves the “Blade Angels.” U.S. Olympians Alysa Liu, Amber Glenn and Isabeau Levito are known across figure skating and, increasingly, among spectators for their technical skill and precision, creativity and camaraderie. Above all, they are known for their authenticity. In a sport still largely defined by traditional, narrow ideas of femininity and grace, Liu and Glenn are not stereotypical figure skaters. They lean into their athleticism. They are open about what they like and who they love. Liu is unabashedly alternative and Glenn is queer. Which means, whether or not they medal, their very presence at the 2026 Winter Games is political.
Whether or not they medal, their very presence at the 2026 Winter Games is political.
For all of the Olympics’ celebration of sport, athleticism and international goodwill, the Games have long been a stage for political statements: Think the Refugee Olympic Team in 2016; the U.S. and Soviet boycotts in 1980 and 1984, respectively; or U.S. medalists raising their black-gloved fists on the Mexico City podium in 1968 to highlight racial injustice.
The 2026 Games already feel especially charged, not only with some countries eager to defeat U.S. athletes as a sort of rebuke to the Trump administration, but also because the administration is at ideological odds with some outspoken American athletes. “It’s a confusing time to be wearing the Stars and Stripes,” U.S. cross-country skier Ben Ogden said Thursday. There “are aspects of being American I’m not proud of.” The announcement that an Immigration and Customs Enforcement unit would join the U.S. delegation — ostensibly to provide security — has added to tensions.
Alysa Liu competes in the Women’s Single Skating – Short Program at the Winter Olympic games at Milano Ice Skating Arena on Feb. 6, 2026, in Milan. Steve Christo / Corbis via Getty Images
Skating events began Friday, with Liu and Glenn competing on behalf of a homeland in the throes of a cultural regression. Court rulings and state legislatures have restricted women’s autonomy in recent years. The Trump administration is promoting neo-traditional roles for women.
Against this backdrop, the Blade Angels, particularly Liu and Glenn, can be seen as opposition figures. They are powerful. They are themselves. They are unashamed. And they are succeeding.
Alysa Liu, who placed second Friday with a technically complicated skating routine on the first day of the team event, has a personalized aesthetic that’s visible on and off the ice. Her competition outfits would not look out of place on pop star Charli XCX. She has a frenulum piercing: a horseshoe-shaped ring that sits on her front teeth. The effect is a subtle glint of silver when she smiles. Less subtle are the pale horizontal stripes bleached into her dark hair like the rings of a tree or repeating halos.
In 2019, Liu, then just 13, became the youngest skater ever to win the U.S. Figure Skating Championships and the first American woman to land three triple axels — in the same competition. She won the title again in 2020. She placed sixth in the Beijing Olympics two years later. Then, at 16, she retired.
“Quitting was definitely, and still to this day, one of my best decisions ever,” she reflected in October. “I just had to try a bunch of other things, and at the time, I thought the only way for me to do that was to leave because I really felt trapped and stuck.”
Reaching the highest levels of skill took years of work, both external and internal: She mastered the triple axel and self-acceptance.
Liu traveled. She enrolled at the University of California Los Angeles. And then, after two years, she began skating again. In 2024, she told her former coaches she wanted to return to competition. Then, last March, she won her first world championship, proving to naysayers that she was back.
Glenn’s path to the 2026 Games began on an ice rink inside a Dallas shopping mall at age 4. She won the U.S. Junior Championship at 14, but by her own account, true excellence eluded her for years. Reaching the highest levels of skill took years of work, both external and internal: She mastered the triple axel and self-acceptance.
“I didn’t fit the mold, and I tried so hard to fit into it,” Glenn told The Athletic. “And once I accepted that just wasn’t going to happen, honestly, I started to kind of lean into it a bit more. I just let myself be me. And through that, I was able to find a new, unique shape that hadn’t been taken before.”
Glenn now embraces both her pansexuality and her role as skating’s “older sister.” She is making her Olympic debut at 26, an age considered “veteran” by most in the sport. She is also the first openly queer woman to compete for Team USA in women’s figure skating, a responsibility she wholly accepts.
“I hope I can use my platform and my voice throughout these Games to try and encourage people to stay strong in these hard times,” she said during a group interview on Wednesday. “I know that a lot of people say you’re just an athlete, like, stick to your job, shut up about politics, but politics affect us all. It is something that I will not just be quiet about because it is something that affects us in our everyday lives. So of course, there are things that I disagree with, but as a community, we are strong and we support each other.”
Few women, even athletes, know what it is like to compete at these elite levels. We cannot share that with the Blade Angels. But women across America understand how it feels to be compressed at all angles, expected to look and act certain ways — and that those who don’t fit the mold face added obstacles. And generations of American women have learned that embracing who you are also means having to do and be better.
To be represented on the world stage by Liu and Glenn is a reminder of the strength of individual identity and of women’s power. These women don’t need to medal to make America proud. They’re winning by being themselves.
Hannah Holland
Hannah Holland is a producer for MS NOW’s “Velshi” and editor for the “Velshi Banned Book Club.” She writes for MS NOW.
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