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

Now it’s just a matter of dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s. The team going to the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, won’t be announced until Sunday. But South Jersey figure skater Isabeau Levito did everything necessary to make the team.

Levito, 18, placed second in the free skate and third overall Friday night at the 2026 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in St. Louis, after placing third in Wednesday night’s short program. But this was by no means any failure on her part. The top five women skated clean programs on both days.

At the end of the evening, Amber Glenn won her third consecutive national title, landing triple axels in both programs. Alysa Liu, the 2025 world champion and a two-time national champion, won silver. Two-time national champion Bradie Tennell placed fourth, which in the United States also is a medal, the pewter.

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Levito, who lives and trains in Mount Laurel, charmed in both of her programs, set to Italian music. Friday’s long program was a light but dramatic piece, to “Cinema Paradiso” by Ennio Morricone. Every note was accentuated and every toe pointed.

She opened with a triple flip-triple toe combination and moved through the program without missing a beat. She pumped her fist after she finished skating.

“She truly is a ballerina, but what I love most about Isabeau is that there is iron below; there is grit,” NBC commentator and 1998 Olympic champion Tara Lipinski said. (Lipinski, like Levito, was born in Philadelphia.)

“I can’t wait to see that on Olympic ice,” added NBC’s other commentator, two-time Olympian Johnny Weir. (Weir is from Coatsville.)

In the end, Levito earned 148.73 points in the free skate and 224.45 points overall. Her overall score is a new personal best.

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

“I feel like [my free skate] reflected the training I put in,” Levito said in a news conference after the competition. “It was my first time competing in an Olympic year being age eligible for the Olympics.”

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

Levito, Glenn, and Liu are expected to be the women’s team representing the United States in Milan — which also is Levito’s mother’s hometown and where her grandmother and other relatives still live. Levito understands and speaks Italian.

The three are good friends and shared a hug after Glenn’s win.

In the news conference, they responded to a question about the bygone era of ice princesses by discussing whether they thought they were more like 2005 movie Ice Princess or the 2007 film Blades of Glory.

Unlike other sports, the national championships are not an Olympic qualifier. It is the last of a series of events over two years that are considered in the equation that determines the team.

Last year, Levito finished just off the podium in fourth place at the 2025 World Championships in Boston.

This season, she placed fourth at the Grand Prix de France, second at Skate Canada, and was the first alternate to the Grand Prix Final.

Levito was the U.S. champion in 2023 and the world silver medalist in 2024.

Now, the wait begins until Sunday’s announcement. But Levito can rest easily knowing she did her job.

Presentation of the Olympic team

2 p.m. Sunday on NBC10 and Peacock