‘Blade Angels': What to know about Alysa Liu, Amber Glenn and Isabeau Levito ...Middle East

When women’s figure skating begins Tuesday, a trio of American skaters will look to do something that hasn’t been done in decades.

But who are they?

Amber Glenn, Alysa Liu and Isabeau Levito are U.S. skating stars for a new era.

The trio will be aiming for the country’s first women’s medal since Sasha Cohen in Turin in 2006, and perhaps the first gold medal since Sarah Hughes triumphed four years earlier at the Salt Lake City Games.

And one or more of them could do it.

They also are the last chance to salvage a disappointing Olympics for American figure skaters.

Here’s what to know about them:

Why are they called the ‘Blade Angels’?

The nickname is a mashup of “Blades of Glory” and “Charlie’s Angels.”

When do they compete?

With the pairs program wrapping its individual medals, the women’s events are set follow, bringing some of the most-anticipated skates of the Olympic Games.

The women’s short program will begin at 11:45 a.m. CT Tuesday. The free skate will follow at 12 p.m. Thursday.

The medals won’t be won Tuesday but medal hopes can be dashed in the short program.

Who are they?

“I haven’t seen a U.S. women’s team this strong in 20 years,” Olympic gold medalist and commentator Tara Lipinski told NBC Olympics.

Alysa Liu

Liu, a one-time phenom, retired at 16 only to launch a comeback that resulted in the first world title for an American woman in nearly two decades. Liu’s blond-and-brunette striped hair, prominent frenulum piercing and nonconformist aura have made the 20-year-old a hero of the alt, punk and emo crowd.

She is the only member of the U.S. women’s team with any previous Olympics experience.

Liu retired suddenly after placing sixth at the 2022 Olympics, when she was just 16, and it took two years before she rediscovered a love for skating. In 2025, she became the first U.S. woman to win the world title in 19 years.

“I really hated skating when I quit. Like, I really didn’t like it,” Liu told the AP. “I didn’t care about competitions. I didn’t care about places. I didn’t care about skaters. I didn’t care about my programs. I just wanted to, like, get away. I want nothing to do with that. I hated fame. I hated social media. I didn’t like interviews. Like, I hated all of it.”

It took walking away for Liu to finally find herself.

The same kid who’d get dropped off at the rink by her father in the morning and picked up at night, and who thirsted for friends her age while living and training alone in Colorado, began to explore: Liu climbed to the base camp of Mt. Everest, ticked off items on her ever-growing bucket list, and enrolled at UCLA to study, perhaps fittingly, psychology.

“I learned so much. Met so many new people,” Liu said. “I had to exercise my free will and push myself in different ways.”

She began contemplating a comeback two years ago, after she went skiing and experienced an adrenaline rush unlike anything she’d felt since hanging up the skates. Liu didn’t know where it would lead — certainly not the first world title for an American since Kimmie Meissner in 2006, and definitely not another Winter Games — but she knew that she loved the feeling of skating again.

Everything in Liu’s life has meaning now, including the striking horizontal stripes in her hair. They’re meant to represent the growth rings of a tree. There are three of them at present, and like a tree, Liu plans to add another ring each year.

“I used to feel like a puppet or a canvas that other people were using,” she said. “Now I do things for myself.”

Now at the Milan Games, she said she’s continuing to do just that.

But Friday’s skate in the short program wasn’t quite at her usual level and Liu grimaced at one wobbly landing as she placed second. Still, it kept the U.S. team in the lead with three of eight programs completed.

Is she nervous heading into her individual medal event? Not a chance.

“I don’t know what’s up with me,” she said. “They’re going to actually have to dissect my brain when I’m dead and figure me out.”

Amber Glenn

Glenn is a 26-year-old powerhouse and LGBTQ+ rights activist whose career took off just when most figure skaters are contemplating retirement. The three-time and reigning U.S. champion’s unvarnished opinion on everything from politics to the trading card game “Magic: The Gathering” have made her a polarizing figure at the Milan Cortina Games.

Glenn grew up in Plano, Texas. Her father, Richard, is a police sergeant and her mom, Cathlene, a fitness instructor. She’s represented the U.S. internationally for nearly 15 years, which happens to be how old Lipinski was when she won Olympic gold.

It’s hard to get more unabashedly American. Yet some critics nevertheless questioned her allegiances on the eve of the Milan Cortina Games, when Glenn answered a question about the political climate for the LGBTQ+ community under President Donald Trump.

“I hope I can use my platform and voice throughout these Games to help people stay strong during these hard times,” she said. “A lot of people will say, ‘You’re just an athlete. Stick to your job. Shut up about politics.’ But politics affect us all.”

Glenn probably wouldn’t have taken such a bold stance a decade ago, when she nearly quit the sport.

But over the course of her career, she’s tackled head-on an eating disorder, which is all-too common in the sport. She spent time in a mental health facility to get a handle on her depression. She learned to cope with ADHD. And she came to understand her sexuality; Glenn identifies as pansexual, meaning she is attracted to people regardless of sex or gender.

“I’ve been through a lot,” Glenn told The Associated Press. “It’s taken many, many years to get to this point.”

Now, she has an Olympic gold medal from her Winter Games debut after helping the U.S. defend its title in the team event.

“I stepped away from the sport. I’ve come back. At one point, I hated it. Whenever people would ask me, ‘Oh, should my kids get into it?’ I would be like, ‘No, never,’” Glenn said. “But I’ve seen the people around me grow, and how the environment of figure skating has changed, and how we’re trying to change it. And in doing so, we’ve created an environment I like to be in every day.”

Glenn is expected to be the only American woman trying a triple axel at the Games, though she struggled through a shaky free skate during the team event.

The reigning three-time U.S. champion, in her first time on the ice at the Games, finished third in the event. She recovered from some early miscues to score a 138.62.

“It wasn’t how I wanted to feel,” Glenn told NBC after her skate. “I was really proud of the mental strength I had that it would not have been the program I would have put out after a mistake a few years ago. So, I’m very proud of the fight. At the practices here I’ve been on fire honestly, doing clean programs. So, I just felt really not my best today, so I was just disappointed in that.”

Isabeau Levito

Levito is perhaps the closest thing to the innocent image of teen predecessors like Tara Lipinski and Sarah Hughes, right up until you get the 18-year-old away from the cameras, and her searing wit and biting sarcasm shine through.

Levito has always admired Russian skater Evgenia Medvedeva, perhaps the most dominant women’s skater of the mid-2000s, who was heavily favored to win gold at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games but wound up with the silver medal instead.

“She was just so pretty. I just wanted to have that angelic energy that I feel like she has,” Levito told the AP. “Amber and Alysa have their distinct style, and she was more like me. My style is, I don’t know, put together. I don’t know how to word it.

“The ice princess image,” Levito said, after a long pause, “which is silly to say.”

Mostly because it is just that — an image.

Yes, there is a sense of purity surrounding Levito, whose mother, Chiara, immigrated to the U.S. from Milan three decades ago, and whose grandmother still lives in the host city of the Winter Games. But pull her away from the TV cameras, photographers and the prying eyes of the world, and her sarcastic-bordering-on-vulgar sense of humor bubbles to the surface.

The 18‑year‑old figure skater has quickly become one of Team USA’s most promising young talents.

Even though she is a newcomer to the Olympic stage, she has already achieved remarkable success in other major competitions. Her biggest accomplishment so far is widely considered her silver medal at the 2024 World Figure Skating Championships — the best finish by an American woman since 2016.

Where to watch women’s figure skating at the Olympics?

Short Program

Coverage of the women’s short program will air live on USA to start, with the second half airing at 1:40 p.m. CT on NBC.

Stream below:

The program will re-air at 7:30 p.m. CT and 8:45 p.m. CT.

WATCH: Winter Olympics Primetime

Free Skate

Thursday’s final will air entirely on NBC. Watch live here:

The medal event will re-air at 7 p.m. CT and 8:30 p.m. CT.

WATCH: Winter Olympics Primetime

Hence then, the article about blade angels what to know about alysa liu amber glenn and isabeau levito was published today ( Tuesday 17/02/2026 - 05:28 AM ) and is available on NBC Chicago ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.

Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( ‘Blade Angels': What to know about Alysa Liu, Amber Glenn and Isabeau Levito )

Also on site :

• TTW Announces Top 50 Nightlife Travel Destinations in the World for 2026
• 'Barbie' Star Shares Emotional Tribute to Eric Dane
• Donald Trump Calls On Netflix To Fire Board Member Susan Rice Or “Pay The Consequences”