Amber Glenn, Ilia Malinin, and The New Friendship Culture in Figure Skating

About this episode

Something shifted in figure skating. And I noticed it before I even knew it was a thing. This episode picks up where we left off with Amber Glenn, but instead of focusing on her individual story, we zoom out to the culture she's helping create around her. Because the friendship culture in figure skating right now is unlike anything the sport has seen before, and we need to talk about it. We start with where figure skating has been in the past; the rivalries, the drama, the infamous Tonya Harding era, and a sport historically defined by cold competition between athletes who were supposed to be enemies. Then we get into where it is now. At the 2026 Milan Olympics I kept noticing something:…