Team USA figure skater Amber Glenn is reflecting on how former Olympian Sarah Hughes has influenced her
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The Texas native says watching Hughes was her "first Olympic memory."
Glenn, 26, will compete in the women's singles competition at the Winter Olympics next month
Amber Glennremembers exactly where she was when she first watched her Olympic heroSarah Hughescompete in the2002 Winter Olympics.
The 16-year-old Hughes, now 40, didn't just pull off a major upset at the Salt Lake City Games that year, but she unknowingly inspired Team USA's next shot at gold come February at the2026 Winter Olympics.
"I remember watching Sarah Hughes in the 2002 Olympics quite a few years after it happened on DVD on my little Cinderella TV and just the exhilaration and excitement," Glenn, 26, tells PEOPLE while reflecting on what sparked her Olympic dreams as a child.
A young Glenn would watch the performance again and again: Hughes dazzled on the DVD, nailing a double axel on her first jump before building up to an unprecedented triple toe loop-triple loop and triple salchow-triple loop combination. The iconic performance was enough to outshine Team USA teammatesMichelle KwanandSasha Cohen, and upset Russian skater Irina Slutskaya, the favorite coming into that year's competition.
"That was my first Olympic memory," Glenn smiles now, thinking back to Hughes' gold medal-winning program.
Soon enough, Glenn was on the ice herself dazzling anyone who'd watch. "I wanted to skate as fast as I could," Glenn says, remembering how her mom always made sure she was wearing elbow pads, knee pads and a helmet. "I wanted to try all the hard things that I saw the older girls trying. And I did, hence the helmet."
Glenn reflects: "And I never stopped. I just kept going."
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By the time she was 14, the Plano, Texas native was the U.S. junior women's champion. After winning gold, the teenager received an unexpected call from Hughes, who offered her congratulations and support.
"She really inspired me," Glenn says. "[That call] was such a cool meeting-your-heroes moment. And I'm so grateful to her."
In the following years, Glenn took time off to focus on her mental health before she returned to the podium at the 2019 U.S. Classic event after beginning neurotherapy.
"I've always had the physical capabilities, but the mental side has been a struggle for me," Glenn says, adding that coming out as pansexual around that time helped turn her belief into success.
A refreshed Glenn earned podium finishes at the national championships in 2021 and again in 2023, but then hit her stride the next three seasons, becoming the first woman since Kwan to win back-to-back-to-back U.S. Figure Skating championships in 2024, 2025, and earlier this month at the 2026 competition.
"It's been a weight off my shoulders," Glenn says about coming out. "I know regardless of whatever results of whatever I do on the ice, that I'm able to speak about my journey and my process truthfully and inspire others to do the same, and not feel as alone in who they are. And that's one of the things that has kept me in this sport for so many years."
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After many of her victories, Glenn says she still hears from Hughes.
"I'll even get texts of congratulations sometimes and I fangirl a little bit every time," the 5-foot-5 Texan smiles, hoping she'll hear from her childhood hero once more after next month's 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy.
Glenn was named tothe U.S. figure skating squadearlier this month after finishing first once again at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, as many expect her to take a serious run at her first Olympic gold.
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But it hasn't been an easy journey for Glenn, who says instead "it's been a long, very difficult road" to get to the 2026 Winter Olympics. But for the first time in her career, Glenn feels ready for the world stage – a spotlight she's imagined since she was a young child sitting in front of her Cinderella TV watching Hughes pull off the unexpected.
"I'd say this is really the first time that I truly believed that I could make an Olympic team and that I had put in the work that I really deserved it, because I have been putting in the work every single day for the last four years," Glenn says. "And I really, really think that it's something I can do. And I'm allowing myself to have that dream now."
To learn more about all the Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls, come topeople.comto check out ongoing coverage before, during and after the games. Watch the Milan-Cortina Olympics and Paralympics, beginning Feb. 6, on NBC and Peacock.
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