On Feb. 8, Crew USA’s Amber Glenn turned the sixth girl within the historical past of the Winter Olympics to land a triple axel in competitors, finally serving to the USA to win gold within the group 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 a few of the Winter Olympics protection, Glenn talked brazenly about her love of the buying and selling card sport — and he or she began it off by casually pulling an assortment of Magic playing cards out of her pockets, together with Pyroblast, Final Likelihood, and extra. Glenn defined that she left her “tremendous fancy” playing cards at house as a result of they’re her “prized possessions” that she could not bear to lose. “It’s a battle-based sport that has to do with completely different planes of existence and realms, and also you often play towards a pair different individuals,” she mentioned within the video (all however confirming that she partakes in four-player Commander). “I am going to native sport shops and play. I do know it is nerdy, however it’s my pastime and I get pleasure from it.”
Amber Glenn holding Magic: The Gathering playing cards as she explains her love for the pastime.Picture: NBC
Born in Plano, Texas, Glenn has spent most of her life on the ice and has talked brazenly concerning the heavy psychological pressure that comes with collaborating 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 concerning the significance of getting passions exterior 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 exterior of the game is essential — and never forgetting that I am an entire particular person. I’ve hobbies. I’ve individuals I really like exterior of the game.” Glenn’s official Crew 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 a neighborhood 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 guess 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” fashion video revealed by Crew USA in December additionally supplied a glance into her each day routine, which incorporates understanding, bodily remedy, and retail remedy at her native sport retailer. Glenn left with an armful of packing containers from Magic’s Avatar: The Final Airbender crossover set, together with not less than 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, Night time’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 prime 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 stability, and reminds herself that she’s greater than her outcomes on the ice. Glenn subsequent competes on Feb. 17 within the ladies’s brief program. Within the meantime, we prefer to assume that she’s shuffling up a deck and taking part in somewhat Magic.
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