Amber alert as US figure skater leads French Grand Prix

Amber Glenn registered the best ever score by an American figure skater for a short programme as she swept into the lead at the French Grand Prix on Friday.

The defending champion at the event, Glenn scored 78.14 points, skating to Janet Jackson’s “This Time”.

Glenn hit a triple Axel to lead world bronze medallist Kim Chae-yeon of South Korea (70.90) and Japan’s Wakaba Higuchi (66.98). “I did my job, and I’m going to do it again tomorrow,” said Glenn after her personal best.

In the men’s short programme, China’s Jin Boyang led with 88.12 points ahead of Estonia’s Aleksandr Selevko (85.73) and Kazuki Tomono of Japan (83.45).

Jin, a two-time world bronze medalist in 2016 and 2017, has struggled in recent years. “I am very surprised as my condition wasn’t that great when I came here,” said Jin after completing a quadruple toeloop, triple Axel and triple Lutz-triple toe. “I didn’t expect to skate as well as I did. Today was good and I hope to skate even better in the free programme.”

Two-time European champions in ice dance Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri of Italy are on track for their third consecutive French Grand Prix win.

They lead with four and a half points to spare ahead of France’s Evgeniia Lopareva and Geoffrey Brissaud with 2024 European bronze medalists Allison Reed and Saulius Ambrulevicius of Lithuania in third.