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South Jersey figure skater Isabeau Levito named to the U.S. Winter Olympic team going to Milan, Italy

Levito shored up her spot with a bronze medal at last week’s U.S. Figure Skating Championships in St. Louis. Joining her on the team are her friends Amber Glenn and Alysa Liu.

From left, silver medalist Alysa Liu, gold medalist Amber Glenn, bronze medalist Isabeau Levito and fourth-place finisher Bradie Tennell pose with their medals after the free skating competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in St. Louis.
From left, silver medalist Alysa Liu, gold medalist Amber Glenn, bronze medalist Isabeau Levito and fourth-place finisher Bradie Tennell pose with their medals after the free skating competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in St. Louis.Read moreStephanie Scarbrough / AP

On Sunday, South Jersey figure skater Isabeau Levito was named to the United States’ 2026 Winter Olympic Team, headed to Italy.

The U.S. contingent was announced during Making the Team: Presented by Xfinity live on NBC and Peacock. This was the first time the figure skating team was named live on television, in the same manner as gymnastics historically does.

Levito, 18, who lives and trains in Mount Laurel, shored up her spot with two elegant programs to Italian music and a bronze medal at last week’s U.S. Figure Skating Championships in St. Louis. She was the U.S. champion in 2023 and the world silver medalist in 2024 in women’s singles.

» READ MORE: South Jersey’s Isabeau Levito wins bronze at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships with a clean program

Joining her on the team are Amber Glenn, 26, of Plano, Texas, and Alysa Liu, 20, of Oakland, Calif.

All three skated clean programs in both the short and the free skate, or long program. Glenn won both segments, capturing her third straight national title.

“It was an absolutely epic evening of skating,” two-time Olympian and commentator Johnny Weir said on NBC on Saturday. “Last night all three women made me believe there could be a chance for each of them to stand on that [Olympic] podium.”

Liu, the silver medalist, is a 2022 Olympian who retired from skating shortly after those Games. She made a big splash by returning to the ice last year, winning the world championships in her first season back.

The three are good friends, which is a change from the win-at-any-cost rivalries from the past. That era was punctuated by the 1994 Nancy Kerrigan-Tonya Harding matchup at the U.S. Championships in Detroit, when Harding’s ex-husband plotted to have Kerrigan hit in the knee.

» READ MORE: Competitors are not always rivals. Just ask the top American women’s figure skaters, Isabeau Levito and Amber Glenn.

On Friday night, Levito and Liu watched and cheered on Glenn, the last to skate, and the three celebrated together in the kiss and cry, the area skaters and their coaches wait to receive scores, after Glenn’s win was confirmed.

Levito also won a bronze medal at the 2022 nationals, but she was 14 then and too young to qualify for the Olympics.

But this time is extra special, because Milan is the hometown of her mother, Chiara Garberi, and where her grandmother and other relatives still live. They will be able to watch her compete next month, Levito said in the news conference Friday night.

Even before nationals began, the Olympic spots were Levito, Glenn, and Liu’s to lose. The three had been dominating the women’s event for the last two years, the time period U.S. Figure Skating takes into account when selecting a team.

But none gave in to the pressure.

All said they are more excited than nervous about the Olympics.

“I am just so excited and stoked about the [Olympic] village,” Levito said at Friday night’s news conference, when their spots were inevitable but not official. “I just know it’ll be the time of my life. I don’t even think I’m going to be worried about the reason I’m there for. That’s when I thrive best, when I’m distracted.”