KEY POINT
Amber Glenn and Ezra Frech will compete in the 2026 season of Dancing with the Stars.
Glenn won team-event gold at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics, while Frech won two gold medals at the 2024 Paris Paralympics.
The season premieres Sept. 15, but Glenn has not said how the show will affect her fall skating schedule.
Amber Glenn is bringing her recent success on the figure skating circuit to television, joining the cast of Dancing with the Stars for its upcoming season. The 26-year-old from Plano, Texas, enters the competition after winning the last three U.S. figure skating titles.
Glenn also made her Olympic debut at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games. She helped the United States win gold in the team event and finished fifth in the individual competition, adding an Olympic title to an already notable competitive résumé.
Her television appearance comes as she remains connected to elite figure skating. In June, the International Skating Union included Glenn in the entry lists for the 2026 fall Grand Prix season, assigning her to Saatva Skate America and the NHK Trophy in Japan.
Those competitions are scheduled for November, while the first episode of Dancing with the Stars is set for Sept. 15. Recent seasons have continued into late November or early December for contestants who reach the final four, but Glenn has not announced how her participation in the show will affect her skating schedule.
Glenn has also indicated that she intends to continue competing while her health allows. In April, she said she did not want to stop competing “as long as my body keeps going and is healthy.”
If Glenn wins the Mirrorball trophy, she would become only the fourth figure skater to achieve that distinction. The previous 10 figure skaters who appeared on the program had already ended their elite-level careers by the time they competed on the show, although some had not formally announced their retirements.
Ezra Frech will join Glenn as another elite athlete entering the ballroom. The Los Angeles native won gold in both the T63 100-meter event and high jump at the 2024 Paris Paralympics.
Frech’s participation also carries historical significance for the series. He is the first Paralympian to appear on Dancing with the Stars since Alpine skier Danelle Umstead competed in 2018.
He is also only the second Summer Paralympian and Paralympic gold medalist to compete on the show, following swimmer Victoria Arlen, who appeared in 2017.
The season will mark the first time in Dancing with the Stars history that an Olympic gold medalist and a Paralympic gold medalist compete during the same season. The development also continues the program’s long association with elite athletes.
At least one Olympian appeared in most seasons dating back to the show’s debut in 2005, making Glenn and Frech part of a broader tradition of high-level athletes testing themselves in a different competitive environment.
The new season of Dancing with the Stars begins Sept. 15. Glenn’s November Grand Prix assignments remain on the calendar, although she has not publicly announced how her television commitment will affect those skating competitions.
