Amber Glenn thought she had blown her chances of winning her long-awaited U.S. figure skating title when the 24-year-old from Texas collapsed during the second half of her routine after a dramatic opening triple axel on Friday night.
Then she saw Isabeau Levito collapse right behind her.
The defending champion fell three times during her own free skate, prompting an audible roar from an adoring crowd in Columbus, Ohio. And when Levito's score was read, Glenn's tears of fear turned into tears of joy. Her score of 210.46 was enough to crown her the best in the country for the first time, a full decade after she was the U.S. junior champion.
“I mean, complete shock,” Glenn said. “It definitely wasn't the performance I would have wanted tonight and I know both Isabeau and I are capable of so much more. “But just the shock that all my hard work paid off.”
Levito finished with 200.68 points, falling to third place behind Josephine Lee, whose winning free skate earned her the silver medal.
In the men's event early Friday, Ilia Malinin made one of the toughest combinations in skating look easy and was rewarded with 108.57 points, giving him the largest lead after a short program under the current points system in the history of the national championships.
The 19-year-old Grand Prix Final champion performed his “Malagueña” program, opening with an effortless quad toe loop, then landing the quad lutz-triple toe combination before hitting a triple axel like made a jump over the ice look like. When Malinin heard his results, he showed off a black and gold towel that said “Quad God” – his all-too-appropriate nickname.
“I was definitely relieved after the performance, especially after some shoe malfunctions in the last few weeks,” said Malinin, who returned to an old pair this week. “I was really grateful to be able to get out of there.”
The national championships continue on Saturday with the pair freestyle and free dance.
Reigning U.S. champion Malinin is the only skater in the world to land a quad axel in competition. He didn't include the four-and-a-half rotation jump in his planned routine for Sunday, but there's always a chance he can pull it off.
“I have to see how I feel mentally and physically,” Malinin said. “I think it will all depend on how I feel and I guess what my point of view is or how I feel about me going out into the free world.”
Max Naumov, the 2020 Junior National Champion, was a distant but surprising second place after his first quad Salchow made up for a problem on his triple axle. After finishing fourth last year, he received 89.72 points in his pursuit of a podium finish.
As usual, Jason Brown turned heads at Nationwide Arena despite falling on his first triple axel. The 29-year-old fan favorite, who missed most of the season to stay healthy and prepare for nationals, recovered and landed a triple flip and a triple Lutz-triple toe combination while doing his usual Flair to “Adios” by the British composer Benjamin Clementine played.
Brown received 89.02 points and is aiming to become the oldest man on the podium since Todd Eldredge won in 2002.
“It’s crazy that the people I competed against are training people at this event,” Brown said. “It blows me away and the level of skating continues to rise year after year and I think that’s incredible.”
Incredible is an apt description of what happened in the women's free skate.
Glenn, who trailed Levito by less than half a point after her short programs, landed a huge triple axel to open her program, a jump very few women want to attempt. She followed with triple flip-triple toe and triple loop-double toe combinations as well as a triple salchow, all of which seemed to be on her way to a national title.
As if on cue, the flaws that had held Glenn back for years came to the surface again in the late broadcast. She shortened a jump sequence by only doing a double Lutz and finished the jump with a single somersault. These two mistakes cost them a lot of points.
“I saw my choreographer and said, 'I'm so sorry,'” Glenn later said. “I didn’t do anything close to what she had for me in that program.”
Glenn watched from outside the ice as Levito fell on her first triple lutz-triple toe combination and then seemingly got back on track with her next three jump passes. But then there was a fall on her triple flip and another on her triple loop, and as she spun toward the finish in the middle of the ice, Levito buried her face in her hands and fought back tears.
When the results were read, Levito remained in third place and Glenn had replaced her as U.S. champion.
“I know I have so much more left in me,” Glenn said. “Ten years ago I won junior championships (national championships) and there were huge expectations placed on me that overwhelmed me. And now, 10 years later, to come back and have this – it’s incredible.”
___
AP Sports: https://apnews.com/sports