U.S. figure skater Amber Glenn emerged as a star long before the 2026 Winter Olympics, winning three consecutive national championships to position herself as a medal contender in Milan.
As is the case with even some of the world’s best athletes, Glenn’s mind wasn’t always in the right place even as she rose to fame.
Glenn has openly spoken about her mental health struggles, which led her to seek professional treatment.
Here’s what you need to know about Glenn’s battle with depression and how she overcame her struggles.
MORE 2026 OLYMPICS: Live medal tracker | Viewer’s guide | Day-by-day schedule
Amber Glenn mental health
Glenn battled severe depression, beginning in the early-to-mid 2010s, as she began to emerge as one of the best young figure skaters in the United States.
Glenn opened up about her struggles in an interview with Time Magazine, explaining that even local competitions began to feel “like life or death” in her mind. “Our coaches would pit us against each other, and at 10 years old, we were forced to have this competitiveness and comparison — it’s so toxic,” she said. Glenn also explained that she body insecurity because she was bigger and more muscular than many of the skaters around her.
Her problems cascaded, one by one. Glenn’s anxiety led to an eating disorder, and those issues led to trouble sleeping. She was also diagnosed with ADHD. When Glenn first started taking medication, she had a negative reaction. “I didn’t want to be on this Earth anymore,” she told The Athletic.
By 2015, Glenn spent a week in a psychiatric treatment facility to monitor her reaction to a new medication.
“It was hard because it meant I had to take a step away from skating and stop everything I was doing, and that was all I knew,” she told Time Magazine. “I didn’t know if I would ever come back to skating — it was such a scary step to take.”
After her stay, Glenn began to take major steps out of what she called her lowest point. “It took just completely stripping down to just survive every day, just wake up and make it to the next day,” Glenn said in January 2026. “It’s taken a decade to get to where I am now.
Glenn returned to the ice in 2016 and kept pushing until she became an Olympic contender, just falling short of qualifying for the 2022 American figure skating team in Beijing.
While her depression was behind her by that point, Glenn was still overly hard on herself as it relates to on-ice success and failure. That led her to turn to “neurofeedback” training, which she said effectively teaches an individual to have better control over their brain and regulate emotions.
Once Glenn started that program, she elevated her performance, won national championships and qualified for the Olympics.
MORE: Meet star U.S. figure skaters Amber Glenn, Alysa Liu and Isabeau Levito
Amber Glenn medal history
Here’s a look at Glenn’s history of medals in both Olympic and non-Olympic events:
- 2026 Olympics — Team (Gold)
- 2026 U.S. Championships — Singles (Gold)
- 2025 U.S. Championships — Singles (Gold)
- 2024 U.S. Championships — Singles (Gold)
- 2023 U.S. Championships — Singles (Bronze)
- 2021 U.S. Championships — Singles (Silver)
- 2024-25 Grand Prix Final — Singles (Gold)
- 2025 ISU World Team Trophy — Team (Gold)
- 2023 ISU World Team Trophy — Team (Gold)
Despite her mistake in the singles short program in Milan, Glenn already earned her first Olympic gold medal as part of the American team.
MORE: Full details on Amber Glenn’s short program misstep
How old is Amber Glenn?
Glenn is 26 years old. While that is certainly young in the grand scheme of life, it makes her the oldest U.S. women’s singles figure skater to compete in the Olympics since 1928.
Glenn’s path was much different than many of her American teammates, but she found her way to the top on her own time and didn’t let history stand in the way of a trip to the Olympics in 2026.
