On Feb. 8, Workforce USA’s Amber Glenn turned the sixth lady within the historical past of the Winter Olympics to land a triple axel in competitors, in the end serving to the USA to win gold within the crew occasion. However do you know she’s additionally an enormous nerd who’s tremendous into Magic: The Gathering?
In a brief profile video that is aired with among the Winter Olympics protection, Glenn talked overtly about her love of the buying and selling card recreation — and he or she began it off by casually pulling an assortment of Magic playing cards out of her pockets, together with Pyroblast, Final Probability, and extra. Glenn defined that she left her “tremendous fancy” playing cards at residence as a result of they’re her “prized possessions” that she could not bear to lose.
“It’s a battle-based recreation that has to do with totally different planes of existence and realms, and also you normally play in opposition to a pair different folks,” she mentioned within the video (all however confirming that she partakes in four-player Commander). “I am going to native recreation shops and play. I do know it is nerdy, however it’s my interest and I get pleasure from it.”
Born in Plano, Texas, Glenn has spent most of her life on the ice and has talked overtly in regards to the heavy psychological pressure that comes with taking part within the sport’s highest ranges of competitors. For her, that is the place Magic is available in. In the identical video, Glenn speaks candidly in regards to the significance of getting passions outdoors of skating, particularly as she’s labored to prioritize her psychological well being.
“My skating and psychological well being journey are an ever-continuing path,” she mentioned. “Prioritizing my psychological well being outdoors of the game is essential — and never forgetting that I am an entire individual. I’ve hobbies. I’ve folks I really like outdoors of the game.”
Glenn’s official Workforce USA profile lists Magic: The Gathering as a type of hobbies, even noting that her canine Uki is called after Ukkima, Stalking Shadow, a blue-black “whale wolf” that may’t be blocked. Whereas being interviewed by an area NBC affiliate in Texas earlier this month, Glenn mentioned her Uki is a younger Schipperke, a long-haired black canine breed with wolfish options initially from Belgium. (We’re prepared to wager that Glenn has a Commander deck with Ukkima, Stalking Shadow and Cazur, Ruthless Stalker as companions — Amber, relase the decklist!)
A “Day within the Life” type video revealed by Workforce USA in December additionally provided a glance into her every day routine, which incorporates figuring out, bodily remedy, and retail remedy at her native recreation retailer. Glenn left with an armful of packing containers from Magic’s Avatar: The Final Airbender crossover set, together with a minimum of one scene field. Glenn’s teammate Alysa Liu additionally posted a video to her Instagram story in December through which Glenn launched Liu to the sport. In her first-ever Magic pack (presumably a Last Fantasy Collector Booster), Liu pulled borderless variations of each Y’shtola, Evening’s Blessed and Clive, Ifrit’s Dominant. And in July 2025, Glenn unboxed a Tarkir: Dragonstorm bundle for NBC’s On Her Turf.
All of it provides as much as a portrait of an athlete who’s found out learn how to keep grounded on the very high of her sport. For Glenn, Magic isn’t a unusual apart or a little bit of Olympic shade — it’s a part of how she protects her psychological well being, maintains steadiness, and reminds herself that she’s greater than her outcomes on the ice.
Glenn subsequent competes on Feb. 17 within the girls’s quick program. Within the meantime, we wish to assume that she’s shuffling up a deck and enjoying somewhat Magic.
