Nathan Chen and Amber Glenn Were Once a Figure-Skating Power Couple
Published Feb. 6 2022, 12:04 p.m. ET
We all know who Nathan Chen is on the ice: a three-time World Championships gold-medalist and Olympic bronze-medalist currently going for the gold in Beijing during these 2022 Winter Olympics.
But who is he off the ice… and who is he dating? Nathan’s romantic life hasn’t made the news lately, it seems, but he and fellow figure skater Amber Glenn were in a relationship once upon a time.
Their relationship took some fans by surprise — “Nathan Chen and Amber Glenn are dating?!” one fan tweeted in all caps in January 2016 — and even got overwhelming for others. “Nathan Chen and Amber Glenn are a little nauseating with their love,” another person tweeted the following month. “It’s so cute but also makes me sick, hahaha.”
Nathan dated Amber Glenn when they were teens.
Nathan was in a relationship with Amber at least until 2017, according to Heavy. During their time, their love for each other lit up social media. In May 2016, for example, Amber posted a sweet birthday tribute on Twitter as Nathan turned 17.
“When I first met you, I had no idea you were gonna be this important to me,” Amber, then 16, told Nathan. “My love for you formed gradually. Your personality, your voice, your hair, your eyes, your humor, everything. You’re the one person I need to talk to when I’m having a bad day, the one person I can rely on to not judge me.”
She continued: “You’re my rock, my best friend, and the most amazing boyfriend I could ask for. Happy 17th birthday, babe. I wish more than anything I could [have] been there with you to celebrate. Hope your day has been almost as great as you. Love you.”
Nathan replied to that romantic post, writing, “I love you so much. I’m so lucky to have you.”
The couple seems to have split, however: A profile that The Guardian published in March 2021 mentions that Amber introduced a girlfriend to her family in December 2019, the same month she came out as pansexual.
Nathan has been focusing on his college studies lately.
We haven’t much about Nathan’s romantic life since he and Amber were together, but the 22-year-old might be too busy to date anyway. In addition to his skating career, Nathan is studying statistics and data science at Yale University. He took a leave from the school to prepare for this year’s Olympics, but he’ll be back there this August, CNN reports.
“It was awesome, my time at Yale,” Nathan told the outlet. “It was really great to be able to have the opportunity to realize sport is really important, and that’s why we’re doing all this, but also there’s the complete other side of life that is available to athletes. … You can still succeed in sports, even if you aren’t 24/7 thinking about sports. I think just being able to have that realization was really useful, and I’m really looking forward to going back to school after these Games.”
He also appreciated getting “exposure of what the real world is like,” as he told CNN. “It’s great to be able to at least figure out yourself and where you belong and how you can create whatever positive influence you can.”
