"The "Blade Angels" are about to take off. That's the official trio nickname for Amber Glenn, Alysa Liu and Isabeau Levito, the figure skaters representing Team USA in the individual women's competition. They voted on the name last month (it was Liu's suggestion) and were re-introduced to the world this week in a video narrated by none other than Taylor Swift."
"Glenn, Liu and Levito are widely considered the country's strongest female field in decades: Any one of them or potentially multiple could become the first U.S. woman to win an individual figure skating medal since 2006. "This is the first time in, I would say, about four Olympic cycles that we have three women who could realistically end up on the Olympic podium," three-time national champion and 2014 Olympic medalist Ashley Wagner told NPR in January."
"Glenn is the three-time reigning U.S. champion, Liu is the reigning world champion and Levito is the 2024 world silver medalist. But what makes them even more notable is their fierce friendship, which many see as a refreshing change from the dynamic of Olympics past. "Something that [Liu has] been saying throughout all the press conferences and stuff is 'Why is it so shocking that we're being friendly, that we're friends?' They obviously are much younger than I am," said Glenn, who is 26."
The Blade Angels nickname refers to Amber Glenn, Alysa Liu and Isabeau Levito, Team USA's trio in the individual women's figure skating competition. The skaters voted on the name and were re-introduced in a video narrated by Taylor Swift. The three are widely viewed as the country's strongest female field in decades, each with potential to end the U.S. individual medal drought since 2006. Glenn is the three-time reigning U.S. champion, Liu is the reigning world champion and Levito is the 2024 world silver medalist. Their visible friendship contrasts with past Olympic intensity and spans ages 26, 20 and 18.
Read at www.npr.org
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]