The Blade Angels have one shot at reaching heaven.

Arriving at the  2026 Milan Cortina Olympics with a tight-knit trio that ranked among the most talented contingents in American figure skating history, Team USA’s two-decade-long medal drought in the women’s singles competition is in danger of stretching another four years after Tuesday’s short program.

Japan’s Ami Nakai (78.71 total segment score) and Kaori Sakamoto (77.23) ended the session atop the leaderboard, with California’s Alysa Liu (76.59) in third place, heading into Thursday’s free skate.

New Jersey’s Isabeau Levito (70.84) is in eighth place, while Texas’ Amber Glenn (67.39) exited the ice in tears after a flawless routine fell apart on her botched final jump, leaving her in 13th place.

Liu, who earned gold during last week’s team event — along with Glenn — now offers the U.S. its best chance to medal in the event since Sasha Cohen won silver at the 2006 Olympics in Turin. Sarah Hughes was the most recent American woman to win gold in the event (2002, Salt Lake City).

Liu was the only “Angel” with previous Olympic experience, finishing sixth overall in Beijing in 2022. But the youngest U.S. champion ever was burned out by the sport and retired shortly afterward, before making her return in 2024.

“I do wish I was out there longer to take in the moment some more. It was a great feeling,” Liu told NBC. “I’m really confident in myself, and even if I mess up and fall, that’s totally OK, too. I’m fine with any outcome, as long as I’m out there. And I am. There’s nothing to lose.”

When the day began, the U.S. believed any of its skaters could finish on the podium.

Liu, 20, claimed gold at the 2025 World Championships, the first American to do so in two decades. Levito, 18, won silver at the 2024 World Championships. And Glenn, 26, is the three-time reigning U.S. champion (the first woman to achieve that feat since Michelle Kwan).

But Glenn, the oldest American woman to compete in the Olympic women’s singles event since 1928, may ultimately be remembered for producing one of the lasting images of the Americans’ disappointing Games, previously stained by Lindsey Vonn’s crash and Ilia Malinin’s falls.

Despite landing a triple axel at the start of her routine and appearing in contention to seize first place, Glenn was penalized on her final jump, earning zero points for an “invalid element” after rotating twice on a triple jump.

“She’s gone through so much and she’s such a hard worker and she’s overcome a lot,” Liu told reporters afterward. “I just want her to be happy. That’s genuinely all I want. We’ll stick together.”

Glenn was inconsolable as she awaited her score, in disbelief after squandering a program that approached perfection, having missed a jump she could do in her sleep.

“I don’t know what happened,” Glenn told her coach, Damon Allen. “I had it.”