WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Amber Glenn has fought through so many injuries and mental roadblocks over the years that nobody would have thought less of her had she given up figure skating, the sport that has brought her so much stress yet so much joy.
One of the best hopes for an American medal at the 2026 Winter Olympics, the 25-year-old tackled head-on an eating disorder, which is all-too common in the sport. She has battled depression and learned to cope with ADHD, which at one point drove her to take eight months away from the ice. And she has become a popular champion for the LGBTQ community.
Now, at an age when many rivals contemplate retirement, Glenn has reached something approaching inner peace, and it has translated into a late-career revival. She has not lost in any competition in more than a year, last month becoming the first American to win the prestigious Grand Prix Final in nearly 15 years, and beginning Thursday night will attempt to defend her gold medal at the final U.S. Figure Skating Championships before the Milano-Cortina Games.
“It's taken many, many years to get to this point,” Glenn said. “I went through a point being just at my lowest, to recovering, to being at a place of stagnant — I was OK. I wasn't great but I was surviving, which isn't thriving, but I was surviving. I would have flare-ups, setbacks, things would happen. I was in a more delicate state but more stable than when it came crashing down.”
That was back in 2015 and '16, Glenn explained, when she was considered an up-and-coming prodigy, poised to follow in the footsteps of such American champions as Tara Lipinski, Michelle Kwan, Sasha Cohen, Kimmie Meissner and Rachael Flatt.
Instead, Glenn found herself in a mental health facility shortly before her first senior international competition. She went on to finish sixth at the Autumn Classic, but then stepped away from the sport entirely to focus on her personal well-being.
She didn't quit, though — not on figure skating or herself. And while there were still hurdles for Glenn to overcome, including a series of concussions, she began to see progress, and that gave her the confidence to keep going.
“As I came into my own and really did some reflection on who I am, and along with that the coming out, deciding to skate how I wanted to skate — not for the scores but for myself — and doing things like that even in my everyday life, it has been essential for my growth both mentally and in the sport,” Glenn said. "I would say I really came into my own my last couple years, and my crisis was '15-16, but luckily I had a lot of good resources, a lot of good tools and people I asked for help.
“And here I am now,” she said with a smile, “doing what I never thought I would be capable of.”
With her confidence soaring, Glenn began this season by winning the lower-level Lombardia Trophy and then triumphed at the Cup of China and Grand Prix de France; the first Grand Prix wins of her career. At the event in France, Glenn landed a triple axel in the short program and scored 78.14 points, the highest ever for an American woman.
At the Grand Prix Final in December, Glenn won both the short program and free skate to become the first American woman to win the event since Alissa Czisny stood upon the top step of the podium in 2010.
“It started with (last year's) national championships. There was the world championships, a break, and I didn't really know how to navigate being the champion,” Glenn said. “Then I got my first international win and it just kept going.”
Now, after the withdrawal of 2023 champ Isabeau Levito due to injury, Glenn is favored to win her second straight national title this week. Her biggest competition figures to be Alysa Liu, a 2022 Olympian in the midst of a comeback; two-time champ Bradie Tennell, who has been dealing with injuries of her own; and rising stars Sarah Everhardt and Elyce Lin-Gracey.
Two-time defending world champs Madison Chock and Evan Bates are even bigger favorites to win their fourth straight U.S. ice dance title, and their sixth overall. They have the world's top score this season of 219.85 points, which the 2022 Olympians set while winning their second consecutive Grand Prix Final.
Ellie Kam and Daniel O'Shea are the top pairs team following their fifth-place finish at the Grand Prix Final.
In the men's competition, 20-year-old Ilia Malinin — the reigning world champion and favorite to win Olympic gold in just over a year — could once again showcase the quad axel, a 4 1/2-revolution jump that only he has landed in competition.
His event wraps up four days of competition Sunday. Then comes the world championships in Boston in March, followed by ...
“The event that's 13 months away, I'm definitely excited for it. It's a little bit in the back of my mind,” Malinin said of the Winter Olympics. “I just want to get through this season, and when I get the down time between seasons, that's when I can begin planning my process and that strategic plan for it.”
AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympicsAP
FILE - Amber Glenn, of the United States, performs her free skate routine at the world figure skating championships Friday, March 22, 2024, in Montreal. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press via AP, File)
FILE - Amber Glenn holds her gold medal at the U.S. figure skating championships Friday, Jan. 26, 2024, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States carried out a lightning military strike on Venezuela early Saturday, capturing President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and spiriting them out of the country. President Donald Trump said the U.S. is “going to run” Venezuela until a transition of power can occur and the U.S. will tap the country's vast oil reserves as part of a rebuilding effort.
American officials say Maduro and his wife will face narco-terrorism charges in U.S. courts.
The overnight operation left Venezuela reeling, with its leadership uncertain and details of casualties and the impact on its military still to emerge. Countries across the region and the wider world were absorbing the destabilizing implications of the apparently unilateral U.S. action.
Here’s what we know — and what we don’t.
Explosions rang out and low-flying aircraft swept through Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, early Saturday. At least seven blasts were heard in an attack that lasted less than 30 minutes. The targets appeared to include military infrastructure. Smoke was seen rising from the hangar of a military base in Caracas and another military installation in the capital was without power.
Venezuelan ruling party leader Nahum Fernández told The Associated Press that Maduro and Flores were at their home within the Ft. Tiuna military installation outside Caracas when they were captured.
Venezuelan officials said people had been killed, but the scale of casualties was unclear.
The attack followed months of escalating pressure by the Trump administration, which has built up naval forces in the waters off South America and since early September has carried out deadly strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean. Last week the U.S. struck Venezuelan soil with a CIA drone strike at a docking area alleged to have been used by drug cartels.
Trump said during a news conference Saturday the U.S. would run the country and gestured to officials arrayed behind, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and said they’d be the ones doing it “for a period of time.”
Trump claimed the American presence was already in place, though there were no immediate signs of this. He suggested the U.S. would use revenues from oil sales to pay for running the country.
“We’re going to get reimbursed for everything that we spend,” he said.
Trump claimed that Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez had been sworn in as president shortly before he spoke to reporters and added she had spoken with Rubio.
“She is essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again. Very simple,” Trump said.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said on social network X that Maduro and Flores had both been indicted in the Southern District of New York and “will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts.”
Maduro was indicted in March 2020, during Trump’s first term, but the indictment against Flores was not previously made public.
In the indictment made public on Saturday, Maduro is charged with narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.
U.S. authorities accused Maduro of leading a “a corrupt, illegitimate government that, for decades, has leveraged government power to protect and promote illegal activity, including drug trafficking.” The indictment alleges the drug trafficking “enriched and entrenched Venezuela’s political and military elite.”
Authorities estimate that as much as 250 tons of cocaine were trafficked through Venezuela by 2020, according to the indictment. The drugs were moved on go-fast vessels, fishing boats and container ships or by plane from clandestine airstrips, authorities allege.
Trump said Maduro and his wife are aboard a U.S. warship and will face prosecution in New York.
Trump gave some details of the operation during a Saturday morning interview on “Fox and Friends.”
He said a few U.S. members of the operation were injured but he believed no one was killed.
He said Maduro was “highly guarded” in a presidential palace akin to a “fortress” and the Venezuelan leader tried to get to a safe room but wasn’t able to get there in time.
Trump said U.S. forces practiced the operation ahead of time on a replica building, and the U.S. turned off “almost all of the lights in Caracas,” although he didn’t detail how they accomplished that.
Venezuela’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, also offered some details of the operation, saying some Venezuelan civilians and members of the military were killed.
The U.S. does not recognize the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, and the legal implications of the strike under U.S. law were not immediately clear.
The Trump administration maintains that Maduro is not the legitimate leader of Venezuela and claims he has effectively turned Venezuela into a criminal enterprise at the service of drug traffickers and terrorist groups.
Mike Lee, a U.S. senator from Utah, said on X that the action “likely falls within the president’s inherent authority under Article II of the Constitution to protect U.S. personnel from an actual or imminent attack.”
But some Democrats were more critical.
Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, said in a statement, “President Trump’s unauthorized military attack on Venezuela to arrest Maduro — however terrible he is — is a sickening return to a day when the United States asserted the right to dominate the internal political affairs of all nations in the Western Hemisphere.”
Maduro’s government accused the United States of an “imperialist attack” on civilian and military installations and urged citizens to take to the streets.
Armed individuals and uniformed members of a civilian militia took to the streets of a Caracas neighborhood long considered a stronghold of the ruling party. But in other areas of the city, the streets remained empty hours after the attack. Parts of the city remained without power, but vehicles moved freely.
Venezuela’s neighbor Colombia sent troops to the border and anticipated an influx of refugees.
Latin American leaders were sharply divided over the strikes. Trump’s right-wing ally President Javier Milei of Argentina celebrated the operation, while leftist Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva condemned American actions and warned of the sharp repercussions of past American interventions in Latin America.
Cuba, a supporter of the Maduro government and a longtime adversary of the United States, urged the international community to respond to what President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez called “the criminal attack.”
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said the attack and capture of Maduro would be “an unacceptable infringement on the sovereignty of an independent state.”
U.S. allies in Europe — critical of Maduro but mindful of international law — offered muted responses as they scrambled to understand the scale and implications of the attack.
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the bloc “has repeatedly stated that Mr Maduro lacks legitimacy and has defended a peaceful transition. Under all circumstances, the principles of international law and the U.N. Charter must be respected. We call for restraint.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he had not spoken to Trump about the attack and stressed that “the U.K. was not involved in any way.” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Spain was “conducting a thorough monitoring of the events in Venezuela” and called for “de-escalation and responsibility.”
Lawless reported from London. Associated Press Writer Danica Kirka in London contributed to this story.
FILE - President Nicolas Maduro acknowledges supporters alongside first lady Cilia Flores during his closing election campaign rally in Caracas, Venezuela, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara, File)
Pro-government armed civilians patrol in La Guaira, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that President Nicolás Maduro had been captured and flown out of the country. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Supporters of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro embrace in downtown Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that Maduro had been captured and flown out of the country. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)
Men watch smoke rising from a dock after explosions were heard at La Guaira port, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Smoke raises at La Carlota airport after explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
