A New Path Towards Success?
By Andréa Nicolas | Culture | May 17, 2026
Cover Illustration: Kelli McClintock / Unsplash
Andréa Nicolas reflects on the recent cultural impacts of the US women’s figure skating team and its breakout stars Alysia Liu and Amber Glenn. She links these influences to insights from an interview with Dutch media student Anvesha, as well as to the state of inclusivity in Dutch sports.
While the Dutch team secured a total of twenty medals, including ten golds, at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, the US women’s figure skating team, “Blade Angels,” is taking over the internet for challenging stereotypes about who gets to step on the podium. Receiving an introduction by Taylor Swift, they returned to the United States with multiple gold medals and a frenzy all over social media. Leading this enthusiasm are Alysa Liu, double gold winner with an inspiring comeback story, and Amber Glenn, known for her unapologetic queerness on the ice.
Dutch media student Anvesha was interviewed to understand what this excitement means in the Netherlands. Identifying as a woman, queer and an immigrant, she dived into what such representations signify in the Dutch context. The conversation spanned from the Olympic excitement and ballroom dancing in Amsterdam, to success and its relation with the Dutch education system.
During the interview, Anvesha explained having taken part in multiple ballroom dancing competitions besides her studies. She stated that, from an early age, the expectation to perform well heavily constrains the athletes; winning is expected, “otherwise you are disappointing.” She also highlighted the common dehumanization of athletes that “you’re not considered a human,” as there is an assumption that they always have to perform flawlessly.
The Global Rink, Success and Representation
The California-born athlete Alysa Liu already has a long career behind her. At age 20, she has competed in two Olympic Games, won gold in the US Championship twice, retired for over two years, returned and won the World Championship. Yet, Liu resonated with a global audience at Milano Cortina, winning gold in the team event and becoming the first American woman to win the women’s single free skating event since 2002. The skater saw her Instagram followers count explode from around 335 thousand on the day of the opening ceremony to over seven million in less than a month.
During her upbringing, Liu was told what to do, when to take breaks and even what to eat. She felt like a “puppet or a canvas that other people were using.” Now, Liu focuses on her own pleasure of skating and does things for herself, and it shows; the athlete stands out on the ice. Smiling ear to ear on the rink, she makes the sport look effortless. Liu was born in a Chinese family in the United States and was part of the fully Asian podium at this year’s Women’s Figure Skating finals. At the age of 16, shortly after competing at the Beijing Winter Olympics, Liu announced her retirement due to her loss of motivation for the sport, claiming she “hated all of it.” After a break of focusing on herself, she started training full-time again in June 2024, but this time on her own terms. Moving forward, she would have a say in everything, from the costumes she would wear to the songs she would perform to.
Her story inspires the world – she proves that mental health and well-being are more important than competition. She represented the United States in difficult political times and showed that fitting the norms is not required to succeed. Liu inspires a new generation of ethnically diverse women to step up and move forward. Anvesha showed excitement towards the change Liu represents: “These whole Olympics were different,” bringing fresh air to the traditions.
Sports and Gender Binaries
Another figure skater, Amber Glenn, also had to step away from the ice because of serious mental health issues. As a child, she was told to stop smiling on the rink and was considered “ungraceful.” Amber Glenn has publicly opened up about menstruating while performing in Milano. This three-time US Champion publicly came out as queer in 2019 and openly talks about facing an eating disorder, depression and ADHD. The twenty-six-year-old defies concepts of femininity and masculinity on and off the ice and generates the representation she needed growing up. Now skating to Madonna and Lady Gaga, she used to be terrified to wear pants on the rink and would cover up her arms, afraid of appearing too masculine. Breaking away from the taboo and the assumptions about what a woman is, or is not allowed to talk about, constitutes a step towards inclusivity in male-dominated sectors. Today, Glenn challenges patriarchal norms within sports and overtly talks about the unwritten rules of ice skating. The sport limits self-expression on the ice, and it is common practice to lose points for being too masculine or not feminine enough.
In ballroom dancing, strict gender roles are part of the sport’s expectations. Being part of a club in Amsterdam, Anvesha highlighted these conventions where “you have leads and followers. Leads are mostly considered male, like historically they’re men, and then historically women are followers.” While she pointed out that this is changing, these gendered assumptions are still prevalent: “Now it’s more that people who are tall are leaders, and people who are shorter are followers, which makes it a male-dominated field.” Figure skating—whether in pairs or solo—has historically been perceived as a male-led discipline, where women and minorities were pushed to the sidelines. Relating to both sports, Anvesha believes that “as a society, we need to rethink those concepts” to be more inclusive.
The Dutch Curse Towards Inclusion
An NBC article expressed the lack of representation within European Olympic teams, and especially at the Winter Games, where many sports are dominated by white athletes. In the context of the Netherlands, access to sports remains heavily limited by social and economic backgrounds, partly stemming from the education system. Thus, the famous “tolerance” of the Dutch might have barriers when it entails full inclusion.
The Netherlands’ school system makes it hard for children to reach their full potential. Anvesha highlighted how the “segregation” performed on children in primary school will determine what doors they will be allowed to open in the future. Moreover, this categorization between VMBO, HAVO and VWO is not equally accessible to all. The system is “setting the boundaries for kids [that are tied to the] environment [they] grew up in,” according to Anvesha. She faced “a lot of discrimination” coming from the education system and teachers, assuming that “[she] wasn’t smart enough because [she] was from a minority background.”
Research has shown that children coming from minority backgrounds in the Netherlands were less likely to succeed academically and have hobbies such as sports on the side. These early barriers make it more difficult for these children to reach national and international recognition, such as the Olympics. Anvesha compared Dutch society to that of the United States and its American Dream, a system that promotes opportunities and equality, but expects immigrants to fit in and perform twice as well: “You kind of want to push yourself even more to show people that I am worthy, or like I can do what a white individual can do. And so that’s a whole other added pressure in the Netherlands or as an American.” She also highlighted that the US “heterogeneous” society was better represented at the Olympics than in the Netherlands, “You don’t really see that representation in the Netherlands […], you see it more in American sports.”
The US team, “Blade Angels,” gained popularity across the world for its new approach to success, breaking down stereotypes and what it represents in uncertain political times. Despite the Netherlands’ open-minded reputation, the country’s lack of inclusivity in sports and support for athletes prevails.
Andréa Nicolas is a university student in Amsterdam. The views expressed here are not necessarily those of The Amsterdammer.
