'24-'25 Main Characters American Women!

Main Characters, all of them! Most of them!

A young Alysa Liu, playing along with USFS’s social media team

Our last installment of ‘24-’25 Main Characters… and not a minute too soon considering the Grand Prix series begins next weekend! In case you missed it, I already reviewed Pairs, Men, Ice Dance, and International Women.

American Women get their own newsletter because I love them and they are my bias. I grew up in the time of Kristi Yamaguchi’s golden moment and gravity defying bangs. I have TWO copies of the People Magazine issue dedicated to breaking down the Nancy/Tonya of it all. I still can’t look at Tara Lipinksi without growling, “IT SHOULD BEEN MICHELLE,” even though there is a reasonable argument that it should not have been Michelle based on actual performances. My point: American Women brought me to this table, and they’re my main course.

And y’all, after a few years of meh, it looks like the American Women are potentially stacked with talent this year. It makes for an exciting season; we get three spots at Boston Worlds next spring, and they will ultimately determine how many Olympic spots are available to us in Milan. There’s high pressure, high possibility for reward, and high ceilings for scores. American Women are not known for their grace under pressure, so it could be a wild season.

Main Characters

Amber Glenn

The Emo Pop Princess.

Current US Champion, Mental Health Advocate, Out and Proud Pansexual Woman, and Triple Axel Jumper.

Johnny and Tara LOVE Amber. I’m not sure I’ve heard them comment on a single competition she’s in without saying she’s the total package, if she could just pull it together for both the short program and the free skate. And they’re not wrong. She tends to dominate in one or the other. After a disappointing performance at Worlds, she ended last season saying she planned to spend the summer working on her mental game.

And it seems like she did! She blew away her personal bests at Lombardia Trophy a couple of weeks ago, managing a pretty clean short program and free skate. She also made the bold step of including a Triple Axel in both programs, something that is new for her. International judges are salivating to give her big numbers— I couldn’t help but raise my eyebrows a few times last season when she had generous scores with multiple mistakes. If she’s consistent and mostly clean this year, watch for her scores to go through the roof. She could be an actual real threat to Kaori. Maybe.

She also seems to be like a big sister to the rest of Team USA. Isabeau Levito has spoken about her kindness frequently, and Amber often posts praise of other US Women on her Instagram. If Loena Hendrickx is pretending not to know the names of her Belgian competitors, Amber is Mother Hen-ing the other American Women.

Isabeau Levito

The Type A Teenager.

Reigning World Silver Medalist, Current US Bronze Medalist, Former World Junior Champ, Lover of Cats (the animal, not the musical, but maybe both?)

Isabeau makes me VERY NERVOUS. Something in her expression reminds me of my teenage self— constantly trembling in perfectionist anxiety like a terrified chihuahua, dreading the moment where I don’t look exactly as I want to in front of other people. Maybe it’s not like that at all inside her head, but I can’t forget the interview she gave after Worlds two years ago where she finished fourth and said she would “never forgive” herself for missing out on a medal there. She really seems to beat herself up after a less-than-perfect performance. She also has a coach who professes to idolize the Dread Pirate Eteri and says she is “very exacting” with Isabeau, which does not give me much confidence that Isabeau has a healthy mentality about competing. And her jumps make my back hurt. I don’t know anything about what makes a jump technically good, but I can tell that Isabeau is leaning very close to the ice to get the power to launch herself in the air, and I fear for her mid-life body. Shoot, I fear for her early-20s body.

She’s already been beaten by other American Women twice this season, though I wouldn’t put too much importance on that. Elyce Lin-Gracey and Sarah Everhardt both needed to peak early this season in order to earn Grand Prix spots, as they both have low World Standing points, so it makes sense they would be in better fighting shape than Isabeau in early season competition. However… I have to wonder what that did to Isabeau’s confidence.

All of that sad, I am rooting for her! I want her to do well! She is lovely and balletic and talented and posts cute instagram stories with music set to the sound of cats meowing. She listens to Nicki Minaj to get pumped during competitions and fusses at Ilia Malinin to pose a certain way in photos. I just wish Amber Glenn would sit her down and load her up with mental health memes. And that she would maybe switch to a nurturing coach like Tracy Wilson or something.

Alysa Liu

The Returning Hero.

Alysa retired from skating at the tender of age of 16, after going to the Olympics and winning a bronze at Worlds. The vibe was that her life had been totally about skating, her dad stage-mom’d the crap out of her, and she didn’t actually like it that much and wanted the f*ck out. This is all my personal speculation based on comments I saw on social media, so please don’t take this as gospel truth. She peaced out, wiped her Instagram, and that was that.

Then last spring, she emerged from seclusion to announce her return to competitive skating and the US Skating Federation basically did this:

Before her retirement, Alysa was The Future of US Skating. She won US Nationals as a 13 year old, and then she went on to win it two more times. She had a Triple Axel in her arsenal before she hit puberty in earnest, and she even landed a quad at some point. She ended the US Women’s Worlds medal drought with her bronze medal, and she seemed to have consistent, solid performances beloved by international judges. I’m sure when she announced her retirement they were like deflated balloons at the USFS offices.

But then she went skiing (something skaters never do because of the risk of injury) and realized she hadn’t felt that kind of rush since she stopped skating and decided to try the ice again. And she seems to be skating on her own terms this time, even returning to coaches her dad sent packing. She’s given a couple of interviews saying that her approach to skating is so different now and that she she truly enjoys it. She’s taking the Nathan Chen approach of attending college full time while competing, and it seems to be working for her so far— she just won her first international competition since her return, and she looked pretty good! She’s not back to her full technical prowess, but her programs are mature and confident. I think she’s a true contender for US Nationals and a spot at Boston. (I mean… pretty much all of these women are, but never count out Alysa Liu.)

Bradie Tennell

The Comeback.

I used to call Bradie Tennell “Vanilla Pudding Tennell,” because I thought she was kind of boring and basic. I regret that. She is actually a fierce a competitor with a little bit of sly attitude. She moved to Europe to find herself as a skater, and I think we all wish we could do that on some level. She’s also a noted Taylor Swift fan and seems obsessed with romantasy books, so I’m pleased that she enjoys herself.

Bradie previously dominated US Figure Skating, winning a spot at the 2018 Olympics during her first Senior season. She seemed ready to be in an Ashley/Gracie type rivalry with Mariah Bell. And then Alysa came along and Bradie got a couple of unfortunate injuries and things started to go downhill. She missed out on the 2022 Olympics, and she came up short last season when a freak accident in practice ended in a broken ankle. Like Alysa, she’s back this season and hoping to make her case as a contender before Boston Worlds. She just competed at Shanghai Trophy where she looked pretty good if not quite great, and I think she has a fair chance to be in the conversation this year.

Secondary Characters

Lindsey Thorngren, alias “Thorngoat.” Lindsey has similar vibes to Isabeau to me, in that she also looks like she could cry at any given moment. But I think it’s possible that is just how her face is. She's another one with great potential who seems to lose focus when a medal is on the line.

Sarah Everhardt This is my dark horse favorite. She seemed like a relative unknown until Nationals last year when she place fourth. Keep in mind— she placed 13th at US Junior Nationals the year before. Her progress seems meteoric, and she’s already dusted her previous personal bests in competitions in August and September. So far this season, she’s bested Isabeau, Kaori, and Gubs. I wouldn’t necessarily read too much into her early season scores because she trained to peak early to earn a Grand Prix spot (which she did), but it’s got to boost her confidence to know she’s capable of that. She’s coached by Ilia Malinin’s parents, and I think they’ve instilled some pretty solid jump technique that is lacking in a lot of other American Women. I think she has momentum and may end up being a spoiler for someone else’s season goals. Keep an eye on her.

Starr Andrews If skaters could earn points for charm, Starr would be on the podium more often. She went viral as a kid when she skated to “Whip My Hair,” complete with some actual hair whipping; and she stole the show again at her second senior US Nationals where she skated to her own vocals for “One Moment in Time.” Her technical content is just not quite on pace with the other US Women, and she has some heart problems that have lead to her bowing out of competitions. But she’s always interesting, which is more than you can say for many skaters. She gets some choreography from Adam Rippon, and it’s fun to see him show up on her social media accounts sometimes.

Elyse Lin-Gracey If I had written this newsletter two weeks ago, I would not have included Elyce. She didn’t have an extremely impressive junior career, and her first year as a senior skater last year was pretty middling. She did manage a berth at Four Continents when the other US Senior Women bowed out to prep for Worlds or deal with injuries, but she didn’t exactly seize the opportunity and blow everyone away. However…. she’s appeared miles better this season. Not just miles. Marathons better. She currently has the highest total score and highest free skate score of ANY senior woman this season— not just among US women. I don’t know what she did over the summer, but she’s worth watching this year to see if she had the skate of her life last month or if this is just the beginning.

Ava Marie Ziegler, aka Ava Z. I’m not actually sure Ava is a character at all this season; she’s already pulled out of her fall events because of a surgery related to injury. We may not see her compete again until next year. But she’s worth mentioning because she won a surprise gold at last year’s Japanese Grand Prix, coming out ahead of other much more favored skaters. She also controversially skipped out on US Nationals last year because it was so close to Four Continents and she wanted to focus her training efforts on that international event. She’s since admitted she was already dealing with injury and only had enough juice for one event; you can’t blame her for trying to build her international reputation.

So you can see, it’s shaping up to be a pretty interesting season for the US Women. In the list of season’s best scores so far, they occupy 4 of the top ten spots— five if you count Junior Woman Sophie von Felton. This year, three American women have already scored over 200 in their competition scores; last year, only two American women managed to do that over the course of a whole season. There’s something in the air; I think we’re in for an exciting season.

Three Non Figure Skating Things:

• My neighborhood is really into Halloween decor. But’s it’s all gruesome. Like zombies coming out of the lawn. And I don’t mean cutesy Disney zombies. I mean my-dog-is-nervous-to-walk-by-and-even-growls-a-little zombies. I don’t have kids. How are your elementary school children doing with this? Are they cool with this level of scary Halloween?'

• I think I already told you about the sock newsletter from Grace Atwood, right? Inspired by that, I got a bunch of socks from Target. My mom complimented me on this pair, so I think they’re a winner!

• If you’re looking for an easy dessert to share at your next Halloween event or if you just want to spice up your Wednesday, I jazzed up come box mix brownies with rainbow chips and candy eyeballs. The results are delightful, if I do say so myself.

  

What’s Next: Skate America, the first stop on the Grand Prix, is NEXT WEEKEND. I’m already planning my Friday night take out order, and it is NOT healthy! Because there is nothing I love more than eating melted cheese while watching athletes in peak physical condition. I’ll be back later this week for a quick preview— basically just sharing the top stories I’ll be watching at SkAm.