Nathan Chen.Photo: Ezra Shaw/Getty
Figure skaterNathan Chenknows better than almost anyone on Earth the rush that comes with a perfect quadruple jump — his body spinning four times in the air in less than a second before alighting on the ice.
And he’s just as familiar with the bone-rattling crunch that comes with a fall.
Chen experienced both duringhis Winter Olympic debutin 2018 in South Korea. Then, as now, he was Team USA’s skating star and America’s best hope for their first individual skating medal in years. Articles frequently cited a nickname, because of hispeerless, how-does-he-land-them jumps: the “Quad King.”
But Chenfelland thenkept fallingin his 2018 Olympic events — only tonail a historic six quads in his final skate, a performance that nearly got him onto the podium.
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The failure seemed to confound him. “I thought I did everything right going into this,” he said at the time. “Things just didn’t click together.”
Chen, now 22, will first be competing for the U.S. in the men’s short program segment of the figure skating team event. Each category (men’s, women’s, etc.) skates twice, in short and long segments; the scores are cumulative.
Chen will be the first to tell you that he’s exactly the same as that 18-year-old skater from four years ago — except in all the key ways that heisn’t.
For example: “I really had a lot of fun at nationals,” he says, referring to the U.S. championships in January. “And that’s not something that I can definitively say was the truth the past few nationals.”
Nathan Chen competing in April 2021.PHILIP FONG/AFP via Getty Images
Nathan Chen loses his balance as he competes in Grenoble, France, in 2018.Francois Mori/AP/Shutterstock
“It’s so easy to fall into the trap of being like, ‘Oh my gosh, the pressure’s building. Everything’s so stressful. Everything’s so scary,’ " Chen admits. “I think that feeling in that way isn’t necessarily a bad thing all the time, but just being able to remind yourself like, yes, this is a pretty stressful time, but at the same time, there’s a lot more to life. There’s so much more than this individual competition, than this one shot.”
So he tries to remind himself, whenever it is helpful: “I’m here. I don’t really have that many opportunities to be here.”
“While it may come off that I’m super intense,” he notes, “a lot of times I’m really just trying to relax and enjoy it and I’ll look up at the rafters, I’ll look about at the audience just to see how cool the arena looks and all these things I think really help me just stay grounded and enjoy the moment more.”
His life has changed; his skating has changed.
The quads are all still there, but that’s only part of his path to a medal. Judges also score on artistry and presentation —performance.
“We need to have that technique, that technical content, but there’s so much more to it than just the jumps,” Chen says. His team has been “continuing to try to push me forward and be more expressive and learn how to be more expressive.”
Nathan Chen.Courtesy Nathan Chen
The Salt Lake City native and youngest of five — two older brothers, two older sisters — also enrolled at Yale University after the last Olympics. There he savored the anonymity of college life as he explored a world away from the rink.
“You see the same what, seven, 10 people every single day. And it’s awesome, you love these people, you grow really close to these people. You struggle, you have great successes with them, everything, ups and downs with them,” Chentold PEOPLE at the time, adding, “But you don’t really get to diversify outside of that.”
He says now: “Knowing that there’s other things out there that I can find passion in and things that I will be able to realize that I have passions for I think is really good. Because before it was like, ‘Okay, skating’s it, and then after I’m done skating, then what? What do I have? That’s the only thing that I know and love. Is there anything else that I could possibly know and love?’ But then having school gives me a new opening or a new door.”
But he never set aside his Olympic ambitions. On leave from Yale, where he is majoring in data science and statistics, Chen aims to “experience it to the fullest while I’m there,” he says of competing in China.
Nathan Chen after winning gold at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in January 2022.Ken Murray/Icon Sportswire via Getty
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“I think being focused is something that I feel like I have to do,” Chen says. “But at the same time, I think over the past few years, what I’ve also learned is that in order to have fun, you also have to be relaxed and sometimes being intense doesn’t always lead to being able to enjoy what you do.”
He’ll be in Beijing wearing the mantle of U.S. star, which he says still feels weird to him — even in his second Olympics.
“Of course, that’s been really special to me, but I still view myself as this young kid who’s like, ‘Hey, I’m coming to the Olympics and this is something that I’ve dreamed about’ and don’t ever really envision myself as like, ‘Oh, this is a “household name,” ' " he says.
Chen is in Beijing with several close friends, includingMariah Bell,the U.S. women’s figure skating champion. (“We’ve known each other for literally forever … We’re pretty silly people when we’re around each other,” he says.)
Starting Thursday night, he’s going to get out on the ice and he’s just going to see.
He’s been skating for 19 years, nearly his whole life. The Olympic podium isn’t far away.
“While we have these opportunities and while we can do these amazing things,” he says, “let’s enjoy as much as we can.”
To learn more about all the Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls, visitTeamUSA.org. Watch the Winter Olympics, beginning Feb. 3, and the Paralympics, beginning March 4, on NBC.
source: people.com
