The Milano Cortina Winter Olympics saw Team USA at the top of the podium in the figure skating team event. By a single point over Japan in second, the American squad confirmed their gold medal with 69 points. However, apart from basking in the glory, figure skater Amber Glenn had a confession to make to her team.

FS Gossips reported about the 26-year-old’s admission, as she shared, stating, “I feel guilty. My team performed so well, and I scored fewer points than they expected from me, and than I expected from myself.” So, what exactly took place?

The U.S. pairs team of Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea opened the evening event with a two-point personal-best score of their own. Both of them achieved 135.36 and eventually came above Canada’s Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud. However, other teams, especially Japan’s Miura Riku and Kihara Ryuichi, posted a 155.55, which made Team USA’s 51-point lead look vulnerable against Japan, which was closing in with 49 points.

Then came Amber Glenn, whose performance could’ve given the American squad the lead they needed. However, with her skate, she was only able to get 138.62, placing her third in the segment, as Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto sparkled with 148.62. And this put all the pressure on Ilia Malinin, whose results would decide the gold medal against Japanese skater Sato Shun.

Talking about her performance, she added, “I hope we can still win, but even if we do, I probably won’t feel like I deserve Olympic gold. And there’s another thing I feel guilty about: I’m very sorry for putting so much pressure on Ilia [Malinin]. I wanted to hold on to our lead. But unfortunately, I lost it. And now there’s nothing I can do except try my best in the individual event and support my team.”

News served to you like never before!

Prefer us on Google, To get latest news on feed

Prefer Us on Google

And guess what? Malinin didn’t let the gold medal slip through Team USA’s hands.

Ilia Malinin came for Amber Glenn and Team USA’s rescue

While hopes weren’t completely lost for that team’s Olympic gold medal, Amber Glenn’s frustration was quite clear. And Ilia Malinin? He didn’t disappoint.

He skated to the “A Voice” medley and opened the session with a quadruple flip. However, this move wasn’t just for a single time; he did it five times. And rather than going for a quad Axel, the four-time U.S. champ went for a triple. Then Malinin did a loop but lost a bit of balance, which made him use his two hands to get a hold on himself.

Here, he lost points but then performed a quad toe, half loop, and triple flip and converted a quad Salchow into a triple Axel. Perfectly, Malinin delivered the jumping passes, and while they were imperfect, he had one more trick up his sleeve.

The backflip that the 21-year-old did turned the entire crowd wild, and this effort awarded him 200.03. With Japan’s Sato Shun securing 194.86, Team USA’s final score was 69, while Japan was 68. His motivation?

“Going into the men’s free skate, I knew that it was tied. I knew that I was the deciding factor. I told myself, ‘This is your moment. It’s do-or-die.’ I just let the nerves go and tried to have fun. Without each other, we wouldn’t have been able to do this. It came down to the energy and support of this entire team,” Malinin said following the gold medal win.

With collective effort, the American team grabbed the gold medal, as Glenn could now ease the feeling of guilt.