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MILAN — Redemption is possible, at least on the rink. After a single missed element in the short program doomed her best chance at a medal, Amber Glenn returned to the Olympic ice Thursday night and delivered a much more composed free skate. The audience at Assago Ice Skating Arena heralded her arrival on the ice with applause, and congratulated her on the conclusion of her program with a standing ovation. 

Starting the night in 13th place, Glenn finished her free skate with a score of 147.52, good enough for a conditional first place with 12 skaters left to go. She skated to a medley of “I Will Find You” by Audiomachine and “The Return” by CLANN, and appeared in control, confident and even grateful, pumping her fists and gratefully touching her heart as she skated off the ice. 

“This close,” she said to herself, knowing a slight bobble on her final jumping pass stood between her and near perfection on the routine.

She may leave Milan with only one medal, the team gold she earned last week, but she also leaves with her head held high and her self-esteem reclaimed.

Glenn and her Team USA teammates Alysa Liu and Isabeau Levito arrived in Milan two weeks ago riding a surge of nationwide popularity. The “Blade Angels,” as they dubbed themselves, were a perfect trio — the heartfelt Glenn, the quirky Liu, the understated Levito. They’d shown so much talent, so much promise — all three are national champions — that talk of a podium sweep even took flight. At the very least, one of them would almost surely break the American medal drought that’s existed in women’s figure skating since 2006. 

For Glenn, the first cracks started to show in the team event. Tasked with handling the free skate element — Liu had handled the women’s short program — Glenn was uncharacteristically tentative, ending her routine in third place. 

"If an average person were to watch, they'd probably be like, 'Oh, it's fine. Just a few little things (went wrong), but as skating people we know, there were many, many, many points left out on the table,” Glenn said afterward. “I did not feel or perform the way I wanted to. I physically didn't feel great. My legs were feeling heavy, I was tired, I just didn't feel my best, and I've been practicing here incredibly.”

The United States still claimed the team gold for a second straight Olympics, but Glenn’s face betrayed her anguish and fear that she’d cost Team USA a gold right up until the final results were announced. 

“I think I had some fatigue and I need to really manage that going into the individual event,” Glenn said at the time. “But I'm really proud of the mental strength that I've built over the years to be able to get through some mistakes in the beginning and really fighting in the second half.”

She had no idea that much worse was yet to come. Glenn and her fellow Blade Angels had more than a week between the team event and their individual events, a long time to maintain Olympic-level intensity. 

When Glenn finally took the ice for her short program on Tuesday, she began with a triple axel, a jump so difficult only one other skater in this year’s women’s event landed it. After another successful element, she prepared to do a triple loop, a relatively routine jump; virtually every Olympian on Tuesday’s program completed one. But a slight loss of balance meant she only did two loops instead of three, giving her zero points for the entire element. 

That loss sent her plummeting down the standings; she finished the program in 13th place, more than 11 points behind leader Ami Nakai of Japan. She was visibly devastated, and left the arena after only the briefest of interviews. 

Glenn returned to the ice on Thursday night with an opportunity to rewrite her narrative. She executed the jump she missed two days earlier and rallied to put up a score that will certainly move her well up the leaderboard. But no matter how her final routine went, she would leave Milan as a gold medalist. 

MILAN — Quick, name the skater who’s been on the ice more than anyone this Olympics. No, it’s not Alysa Liu or Ilia Malinin. The skater who’s spent more time on the ice than any Olympian won’t medal at these Games, but he’s nonetheless opening up the image of skating in an entirely new way. 

After every skater finishes their routine, Jordan Cowan steps onto the ice to accompany them to the kiss and cry couch. He circles them, capturing their emotions while deftly skating backward to accompany them off the ice. There are plenty of jobs that one can step into with no experience, but “skating cameraman” most definitely is not one of them. 

Cowan grew up in Los Angeles, but fell in love with ice dancing and moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to train. He was good, too, joining Team USA as an ice dancer; alongside partner Anastasia Olson, he finished 7th in the U.S. national championships in 2012. 

REUTERS / REUTERS

All the while, though, he was working with video, making funny clips and enjoying himself. A child of Los Angeles, his first love was film. After he retired from skating, he observed how cameras in ballroom dancing were revolutionizing the viewing experience. Steadicams can move with the dancers, bringing a new dimension of intimacy to shows like “Dancing with the Stars” and “So You Think You Can Dance.” 

And then an idea hit him: What if a camera could move with skaters? 

Cowan is a freelance videographer, working in Madison Square Garden filming the Knicks and Rangers. But he knew there was an untapped opportunity for on-ice filming, so he began developing his own Steadicam rig, a hybrid of various systems and equipment tailored specifically to his needs. He founded On Ice Perspectives to provide skating camerawork for TV and national competitions. He’s filmed three U.S. championships, including breakout moments with stars like Amber Glenn: 

The Olympics represent a new level of fame and responsibility. “This is a very traditional kind of sport, filmed mostly the same way for the last 50 years,” Cowan says. “Fans love the tradition of ice skating. So having a camera on the ice is a very important privilege. I respect it a lot.” 

In these Olympics in Milan, Cowan enters the rink after the skaters have finished their routines, giving a sweeping, cinematic view of their faces in joy or devastation. He skates in slow, sweeping arcs around them, carrying a camera — he says it weighs about as much as a heavy bag of groceries — out in front of his chest, capturing the spectrum of emotion on skaters’ faces. 

“I recognize and respect their emotional privacy,” he says. “I’m trying to bring the audience closer to the story, getting the audience to empathize. The skaters understand that I’m not there to put a camera in their face, but to show them in the best light possible.” 

He also tries to remain unobtrusive. Two skaters he’s filmed before — Great Britain’s Lewis Gibson and Canada’s Paul Poirer — were excited to see he was on the ice … but only when they saw him filming other skaters. They hadn’t even noticed him while he was on the ice in front of him. 

“That’s the best feedback I can get,” Cowan says. “I’m not taking anything away from the skaters on the ice.” 

That’s in part because he blends into the ice. Cowan sports a sharp custom-made white suit, a tribute, he says, to the fashionable host city of Milan. 

“Sometimes I’m caught in a wide shot,” he says, “so instead of trying to make a feeble attempt to hide myself, I tried to match the mood of skaters in expensive designer costumes.” 

Saturday night will bring the famed skater’s gala, an exhibition of the figure skating medalists and special invitees where Cowan will get the opportunity to shine. “That’s my specialty. I love filming live shows,” he says. “It’s a celebration, a performance to please the crowd.” Freed of the concerns about competition, both Cowan and the skaters will be able to cut loose, enjoy the pleasure of performing, and bring the audience along for the skate. 

“Being on ice, getting to film skaters during their tricks, having people at home watch it live and behind the scenes,” he says, “it’s even better than a front-row seat.”