US figure skater Amber Glenn speaks out for LGBTQ community at Olympics

MILAN — Three-time U.S. figure skating champion Amber Glenn, the most prominent LGBTQ female athlete in her sport, criticized the Trump administration during a pre-Olympic news conference with fellow U.S. skaters Wednesday morning at the 2026 Winter Games.

“It’s been a hard time for the (LGBTQ) community overall in this administration,” she said. “It isn’t the first time that we’ve had to come together as a community and try and fight for our human rights. And now especially, it’s not just affecting the queer community, but many other communities, and I think that we are able to support each other in a way that we didn’t have to before, and because of that, it’s made us a lot stronger.”

Glenn, 26, said she will not shy away from talking about these issues during the Olympics. 

“I hope I can use my platform and my voice throughout these Games to try and encourage people to stay strong in these hard times. I know that a lot of people say you’re just an athlete, like, stick to your job, shut up about politics, but politics affect us all. It is something that I will not just be quiet about because it is something that affects us in our everyday lives. So of course, there are things that I disagree with, but as a community, we are strong and we support each other, and brighter days are ahead of us.”

Glenn, a native of Plano, Texas, came out as pansexual in a December 2019 interview with the Dallas Voice.