GRENOBLE, France — Competing with five Japanese skaters in the six-woman field, Amber Glenn of the United States continued her breakout season in figure skating by taking the lead in the short program at the Grand Prix Final on Thursday as world champion Kaori Sakamoto fell.
Glenn landed the competition’s only triple axel jump on her way to a score of 70.04 points.
Glenn said she “pinched a rib” on an awkward landing of the axel and “held back on the following two jumps,” which both lost points on execution.
“Today I was in a really rough place competing. I didn’t feel the greatest, but I feel like I stayed very mentally strong and fought for everything,” she said. “And, you know, me a couple of years ago, my anxiety would have gotten to me, but I’ve gotten a lot better with it.”
Glenn is in her first Grand Prix Final at the age of 25 after a strong season brought her first two career wins in the Grand Prix series. She is seeking to become the first U.S. skater to win the women’s event at the Grand Prix Final since Alissa Czisny in 2010.
Mone Chiba is in second place ahead of Saturday’s free skate on 69.33 – to the Donna Summer song “Last Dance” – while Hana Yoshida is third on 64.23.
Three-time world champion Sakamoto seemed capable of challenging Glenn for the lead until she fell on the last jump in her program, a triple flip-triple toeloop combination and placed fourth on 63.98.
Germany’s Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin took a narrow lead in the pairs short program as they aim to retain the Grand Prix Final title they won last year.
Hase and Volodin skated clean to score a personal-best 76.72 for a lead of just .45 of a point from Japan’s Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara after Miura underrotated a triple toeloop jump. Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava are third on 72.26 for Georgia.
The pairs competition ends with the free skate Friday.
