Amber Glenn always wears her heart on her sleeve, her joy or dismay clear for the world to see.

“It’s what makes me relatable, but it also makes it hard to hide,” Glenn said after her Wednesday practice at the Milano Ice Skating Arena.

Some 18 hours earlier, her face had displayed increasing levels of devastation, reflecting a heart crushed by the mistake on her favorite jump in the short program. It was an error so costly it left the three-time U.S. champion in 13th place, slightly more than 9 points from third, her hopes to contend for a medal probably gone.

Glenn looked inconsolable.

Reigning world champion Alysa Liu saw that. And when she might have been celebrating the strong skate that put her third, just 2.12 points from short program winner Ami Nakai of Japan heading into Thursday’s free skate final, Liu was more concerned about helping her teammate.

To Glenn, that ability to sense the heart of the matter is what has brought Liu to where she is today, delighting in skating for its essence rather than for where she winds up in the standings.

“Alysa was right there for me, giving me a big hug, comforting me,” Glenn said. “I was wanting her to enjoy herself rather than trying to comfort me, but she couldn’t care less (about herself.)

“It’s just another day for her.  What makes her attitude toward the sport so incredible is she’s able to see it as not like pressure. . .of course, there’s pressure. . .but as like pure enjoyment.”

Making that point, Liu seemed as motivated by trying to earn an invitation to Saturday’s Olympic figure skating gala exhibition as she did by her good shot at a medal. Winning a medal would guarantee that.

“I’m just putting that out there,” Liu said after her short program. “I really want to (skate in) the Olympic gala. I have a really cool program and dress. So I’m thinking about it.”

Someone asked if she was also thinking about a medal.

“I don’t need a medal,” Liu said, then continued the thought when the next question focused on the idea that where she has placed doesn’t matter much to Liu.

“Well, it doesn't,“ Liu said. “It doesn't change how I did. I mean, I'd hope it doesn't change how people view my performance either.”

But it is a competition, and they do keep score and hand out gold, silver and bronze medals. So, with apologies to Ms. Liu, this is what medal prospects look like:

The leader, 17-year-old Nakai, undoubtedly never saw herself in such a position as a first-year senior internationally, especially after finishing fourth in December’s Japanese Championships.

Perhaps insouciance and youthful ebullience will work in her favor against her experienced countrywoman, Kaori Sakamoto, 25, the three-time world champion and 2022 Olympic bronze medalist. Sakamoto finished 1.48 points behind Nakai in the short program.

“There’s no way I stand a chance against Kaori right now,” Nakai said through a translator after posting a personal best score in the short program. “I’m just enjoying these Olympics.”

Yet Nakai has placed ahead of Sakamoto in their two meetings at international competitions this season. Liu, meanwhile, beat Sakamoto at December’s Grand Prix Final.

And then there is the third Japanese skater, Mone Chiba, 2.59 points behind Liu. Chiba won two Grand Prix events this season but her results have tailed off a bit since then.

The most intriguing medal contender is Russia’s Adeliya Petrosian, who is fifth, just 1.11 behind Chiba. Petrosian has to compete under the cumbersome designation of “Individual Neutral Athlete” (AIN) because Russia is barred from using its country name, flag and anthem at the Olympics as penalty for its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine four years ago.

These Olympics are just Petrosian’s second international competition, following an Olympic qualifier in early September, as the International Skating Union has barred Russians from its events since the invasion. The ISU allowed one Russian man and one woman to qualify for Milan after vetting them for no links to the Russian war effort.

Skating nationally, Petrosian’s results the previous three seasons signaled her as a potential favorite for gold, which Russian women have won at the past three Winter Games. A leg injury cut into her off-season training and has diminished the reliability of her most valuable jumps, the quadruple toe loop and triple Axel. 

Petrosian did not attempt the triple Axel in the short (where women can’t attempt quads.) She is the only competitor with a quadruple jump but has repeatedly fallen on the quad toe in practices on Olympic ice.

And what of Glenn and the third U.S. woman, Isabeau Levito, eighth after the short program (70.84), seemingly a bit underscored? Levito’s facial expression when the scores were announced was one of consternation.

“I’m not really bothered,” she insisted Wednesday. “I don’t set goals like I need to hit 75. Figure skating is a subjective sport.”

Glenn knew her score would take a huge hit after reducing a planned triple loop jump to a double. She received no points for the element, which was required to be a triple.

Six of her previous seven attempts at the jump this season had earned her over six points. Even her lowest score of those seven, 3.59, would have moved her to seventh, under six points from third.

“It wasn’t the pressure that got me,” she said. “It was just a literal lack of balance.  I tapped down on the spin (that immediately preceded the loop), which I never do, and I was like, 'Oh, gosh.' I just felt like my core wasn't stable. I was a little bit noodlely.

“You can't go back in time. You can't fix it. They still expect you to smile, and they still expect you to perform like (you’re) having the time of your life when, in reality, your dreams are just smashed to pieces.”

She knows that even a flawless free skate won’t be enough to get back into medal range unless the leaders make a big mistake or several. She also knows what happened in the men’s free skate, when Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan jumped from fifth to first and Japan’s Shun Sato from ninth to third, thanks to multiple errors by short program top three Ilia Malinin of the U.S., Yuma Kagiyama of Japan and Adam Siao Him Fa of France.

“This Olympics shows you never know what is going to happen,” Glenn said.

Philip Hersh, who has covered figure skating at 13 straight Olympics, is a special contributor to NBCOlympics.com.