Nov. 20--Amber Glenn has hit some ruts in the ice since she won the junior women's title with two exceptional performances at last January's U.S. Figure Skating Championships.
How exceptional? In the free skate, she tossed off two triple-triple jump combinations in the opening 30 seconds. And while comparing scores is a tricky exercise, since judging panels are different, Glenn's total score nevertheless was impressive:
*It topped the scores of all but three women in the senior event, despite seniors having an extra point-scoring element in the free skate.
*Was nearly eight points higher than any that of any previous U.S. junior champion.
*Was nearly 27 higher than Polina Edmunds' winning score in 2013 -- and Edmunds went on to make the 2014 Olympic team as runner-up in seniors at age 15.
"Polina is a great inspiration for me," said Glenn, 15, of Plano, Texas, who was fifth to Edmunds in 2013. "It gave me a lot of confidence and made me even more excited for the future."
Glenn's rise likely will be slower. That is fine, given the next Olympics are more than three years away, time for her to solve jump under-rotation issues drawing penalties from international judges.
Her next step comes in the senior competition at the Midwestern Sectionals Friday and Saturday at the Fox Valley Ice Arena in Geneva, where Glenn needs a top-four finish in a field of 14 to qualify for the 2015 U.S. Championships.
The home-schooled ninth grader went from last season's nationals to a seventh at junior worlds, leaving "pleased but not completely satisfied." She opened this season with a win in her senior debut at a third-tier national event but faltered on the Junior Grand Prix circuit, with a third in France and sixth in Estonia.
The latter result owed primarily to an upper respiratory infection so bad Glenn nearly passed out in practice.
"I was pretty upset, but I learned how to handle being in a bad situation," she said.
Medicine and two weeks off the ice after returning from Estonia in late September allowed Glenn to regain her strength. Not qualifying for the Junior Grand Prix Final in mid-December allows her uninterrupted training after the sectional meet.
"My focus is on senior now," she said. "My role model is Sarah Hughes. She won juniors four years before she won the Olympics."
After the U.S. long track speedskating debacle at the 2014 Sochi Olympics -- no medals for the first time since 1984 and just the second time since women's events were added in 1960 -- it is no surprise U.S. Speedskating isn't exactly flush with sponsorship money.
The result is no official U.S. team at the first two long track World Cups of the season, last weekend in Japan and this weekend in South Korea.
USS President Mike Plant insisted in a text message the decision was "more strategic" than financial.
"The focus is on late-season World Cups and world (championships)," he wrote.
Four U.S. athletes -- including two-time Olympic champion Shani Davis of Chicago and Jeffrey Swider-Peltz of Wheaton -- are competing in Asia on their own dime (in Davis' case, likely with help from his sponsorship deals.)
"We are paying by credit card and hoping people will help by the end of the month," said Olympian Nancy Swider-Peltz, Jeffrey's mother and coach, who raises funds at teamswiderpeltz.com.
