Amber Glenn did not even really want to go to Beijing. Sure, she had dreamed of it the way every child dreams of competing in the Olympics—on the same level as becoming President or learning to fly. But the highest realistic honor she envisioned for her figure skating career as a kid was performing on television, which she’d done at 14. So when she came out of nowhere at 21 to finish second at the 2021 national championships and in a flash everyone around her started talking about her as a Beijing hopeful, she didn’t quite know what to think.
“Those were quite uncertain times due to a certain virus going on in the world,” she says. “So I was suddenly a topic of, Oh, this could happen, and I was really fresh. I hadn’t proven myself internationally or really in the country, except for one time, so I didn't have the expertise or experience that came with all the hype and buzz of the ’22 Games.”
