Nathan Chen

Nathan Chen was part of an increase in the number of infant skaters following the 2002 Winter Olympics in his home town.[28] He started skating at the age of three in a beginners' class at the Salt Lake City Sports Complex, which served as a practice rink during the Olympics. He entered his first figure-skating competition in 2003.[28][29] When he was seven, Chen started competing at the juvenile and intermediate levels in the U.S. Junior Figure Skating Championships, placing 10th at the juvenile boys' level in 2007; in the same competition, he won bronze in the juvenile boys' division in 2008 and the intermediate men's silver medal in 2009.[30]

Progressing to novice level in the 2009–2010 season, Chen competed at the 2010 U.S. Senior Championships in Spokane, becoming the youngest U.S. novice men's champion in history at the age of 10.[31] He remained at the novice level for the 2010–2011 season and became the first male skater to retain the U.S. novice champion at the 2011 U.S. Championships in Greensboro, finishing almost 36 points ahead of his nearest competitor.[32] Chen debuted as at the junior level in the 2011-12 season, and won his first national junior men's title at the 2012 U.S. Championships in San Jose.[33] At his first international appearance, Chen won the novice men's event at the 2012 Gardena Spring Trophy in Italy.[34]

Chen had started working with former Czechoslovakian skater Karel Kovar, who used to train with Russian coach Alexei Mishin and taught Chen to pull his arms across his torso in a "seat belt" position when he rotated, a position Chen still uses.[35] Kovar introduced Chen to fellow Czechoslovakian skater Jozef Sabovčík nicknamed "Jumping Joe".[36] Sabovčík was the first coach who told Chen not to stop in the middle of a program during a run-through.[18] Chen worked with Kovar until age nine, and had begun taking lessons from Evgenia Chernyshyova, who was local to Salt Lake City and more easily accessible.[37][21]

He started working with jump specialist Rafael Arutyunyan when he was 10; Chen and his mother would drive from Salt Lake City to Lake Arrowhead, California, several times a year. The family did not have much money to spend on skates, lessons, and competition costumes so Chen and his mother sometimes slept in their car. At age 11 Chen told his mother he should move to further his career, and Chen and his mother relocated to Southern California.[38][16] Arutyunyan became his main coach in 2011.[39]

Chen became eligible to compete in the ISU Junior Grand Prix in 2012-2013[33] and made his debut in Austria, where he won the title with the combined total score of 222.00 with 37 points to spare.[40] He withdrew from his second event in Croatia after sustaining a lower leg injury[41] but won the junior men's bronze medal at the 2013 U.S. Championships.[42] In 2013-2014, Chen was placed first at both Grand Prix assignments in Mexico and Belarus,[43][44] and qualified for the 2013 Junior Grand Prix Final, where he finished third.[45] He won his second U.S. junior title with a record short-program score of 79.61 and a record cumulative score of 223.93 at the 2014 U.S. Championships,[46][47] and won bronze at the 2014 World Junior Championships a few months later.[48]

Chen at the junior men's medal ceremony at the 2014 U.S. Championships

Chen was often injured during the 2014-2015 season, and was only healthy enough to compete at one Grand Prix event in Croatia, where he finished second behind Shoma Uno.[49] Chen debuted as a senior in the U.S. at the 2015 Pacific Sectional Championships, which he won, and advanced to the 2015 U.S. Championship.[50] A week before the championship, Chen developed a growth-related heel injury and competed with modified versions of both programs, placing eighth overall.[51] After nationals, Chen was assigned to the 2015 World Junior Championships, where he finished fourth.[52] In 2015–2016, Chen took first place in the Junior Grand Prix Final[53] after winning both Grand Prix events in Colorado Springs, Colorado.[54] and Logroño.[55] At the 2016 U.S. Championships, Chen became the first U.S. man to land two quadruple jumps in a short program,[56] and the first U.S. man to land four quadruple jumps in a free skate. He finished third overall behind Adam Rippon and Max Aaron; Rippon did not attempt any quads and Aaron landed two, restarting the long-standing debate over whether artistry should trump athleticism.[57][58] While attempting a quadruple toe loop in the exhibition, Chen sustained an avulsion injury to his left hip and underwent surgery. He withdrew from the 2016 World Junior Championships and the 2016 World Championships.[59][60] After a month of rehabilitation at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, he went to the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs to work with strength-and-conditioning specialists, and continued his rehabilitation. Chen resumed full training around July.[61][62]

In preparation for his senior international debut, Nathan Chen worked on a new short program with Marina Zoueva,[63] while Zoueva and Oleg Epstein coached him in Canton, Michigan.[64] Chen opened the pre-Olympic season at the 2016 CS Finlandia Trophy, winning gold ahead of Patrick Chan.[65] At his senior Grand Prix debut at the 2016 Trophée de France, he landed clean quadruple Lutz and triple-toe combinations and clean quadruple flips in both segments. He received 92.85 points for the short program, breaking Evan Lysacek's U.S. record of 90.30.[66] Chen placed fourth overall and returned to California to work with Rafael Arutyunyan before the NHK Trophy,[63] where he finished second behind Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu.[67] Chen opened the 2016-2017 Grand Prix Final, placing fifth in the short program. He won the free skate with a performance that included four quadruple jumps, earning a combined score of 282.85 points, coming second to Hanyu. At 17, he became the second-youngest man to win a medal at a Grand Prix Final after Evgeni Plushenko, who was 16 in 1999.[68]

Chen at the 2016 Grand Prix Final

At the 2017 U.S. Championships in Kansas City, Chen performed two quadruple jumps in the short program and became the first skater to land five clean quadruple jumps in a free skate.[69] He won his first senior U.S. title with record scores of 106.39 in the short program, 212.08 in the free skate, and 318.47 overall to become the youngest champion in more than 50 years.[70][71] A few weeks later, Chen won the 2017 Four Continents Championships. He scored 103.12 in the short program, 204.34 in the free skate, and 307.46 in combined total, exceeding 100 (short program), 200 (free skate), and 300 (combined total) for the first time in his career,[72][73] and became the youngest Four Continents men's champion in history until Kao Miura in 2023.[74] At the 2017 World Championships, Chen's boots had begun to fall apart, but he felt his back-up boots were too new and decided to try to repair the old ones with duct tape and hockey laces.[75][76] Chen finished sixth overall, saying; "It wasn't at all the program I wanted to do. I made a whole bunch of mistakes". Chen's placement, combined with his teammate Jason Brown's seventh-place finish, ensured Team USA would be able to send three men to the 2018 Winter Olympics.[77] Chen ended the season at the 2017 World Team Trophy, where he finished second in the short program[78] and fourth in the free skate.[79] The U.S. team finished third overall.[80]

Chen's first competition in the Olympic season was the 2017 CS U.S. International Figure Skating Classic. Working with choreographers Shae-Lynn Bourne and Lori Nichol, he debuted a short-program set to "Nemesis" and a free skate with music from Mao's Last Dancer. In the free skate, he landed his first quadruple loop to become the first skater to land five different quads in competition.[81][82] After placing first in the short program and second in the free skate at 2017 Rostelecom Cup, Chen defeated Yuzuru Hanyu to win his first Grand Prix title.[83] At 2017 Skate America, Chen secured his second title, finishing ahead of teammate Adam Rippon. With the two wins, Chen earned the top qualifying spot for the 2017-18 Grand Prix Final,[84] where he had a narrow win over Shoma Uno. Chen became the first U.S. man to win the final since Evan Lysacek in 2009.[85][86] At the 2018 U.S. Championships, which served as trials for the Olympics, Chen performed seven clean quadruple jumps—two in the short program and five in the free skate—to win his second consecutive national title.[87] Chen, Adam Rippon, and Vincent Zhou were named to the Olympic Team.[88]

Chen (center) with Shoma Uno (left) and Mikhail Kolyada (right) at the 2018 Worlds medal ceremony

At the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Chen performed his short program in the team event poorly and placed fourth,[89] but won bronze alongside his teammates.[90] A week later, Chen had another disappointing performance in the men's individual short program and finished 17th heading into the free skate. Afterward he said; "Honestly, it was bad ... I made as many mistakes as I possibly could have".[91] Chen placed first in the free skate with a new personal best score of 215.08, and became the first skater to land six quads in a free skate, and finished fifth overall.[92][93] Chen caught influenza and withdrew early from the gala to avoid infecting other athletes.[94] A month later, Chen won his first world title at the 2018 World Championships, finishing first in both programs. He became the first skater to land eight quadruple jumps in a single competition—two in the short program and six in the free skate.[95][96] He became the first U.S. man to win the World Championships since Evan Lysacek in 2009 and the youngest world champion since Evgeni Plushenko in 2001. His margin of victory over silver medalist Shoma Uno (47.63 points) was the greatest at a World Championships, Olympic Winter Games, and Grand Prix Final under the historical ISU Judging System (IJS).[97] In early 2018, Chen was accepted into Yale University.[98]

Chen during his free skate at the 2018 Internationaux de France

Chen's first competition as a full-time college student was the Japan Open, where he skated alongside Jeremy Abbott, Bradie Tennell, and Mariah Bell. He finished fourth in the free skate and Team North America finished third overall.[99] At 2018 Skate America, Chen skated to "Caravan" by Fanfare Ciocărlia in his short program[100] and to "Land of All" by Woodkid during his free skate.[101] He won both segments and defended his title, winning by the largest point margin in the competition's history.[102] At the 2018 Internationaux de France, Chen fell on his quadruple flip in the short program and entered the free skate in third place behind Jason Brown.[103] He recovered and won the event with a total score of 271.58.[104] At the 2018–19 Grand Prix Final, Chen won the short program and the free skate—though he made some mistakes—to win his second Grand Prix Final.[105] With the win, Chen became the fourth man to win consecutive Grand Prix Final titles since the event debuted in 1995.[106] At the 2019 U.S. Championships in Detroit, Chen received a record score of 113.42 for a two-quad short program and a record score of 228.80 for a four-quad free skate, ending with a record combined score of 342.22 points. He won the championship by 58.21 points over Vincent Zhou in second place and became the first man to win three consecutive national titles since Johnny Weir in 2004–2006.[107][108]

Competing at the 2019 World Championships in Saitama during Yale's spring break,[109] Chen defended his world title and broke the world record for the free skate and total score, with 216.02 and 323.42 points respectively. He won the championship by 22.45 points over Yuzuru Hanyu, becoming the first U.S. man to win back-to-back world titles since Scott Hamilton (1981-1984).[110] With teammate Vincent Zhou winning bronze, two Americans stood on the men's podium at Worlds for the first time since 1996.[111] Chen traveled back to Japan to conclude his season at the 2019 World Team Trophy, where he won both segments; Team USA placed first.[112][113][114]

Chen (center) with Yuzuru Hanyu (left) and Kévin Aymoz (right) at the 2019–20 Grand Prix Final podium

Chen opened his 2019–2020 season by winning the free skate in the men's event at the Japan Open, contributing to Team North America's bronze-medal finish.[115] He went on to defend his title at 2019 Skate America in Las Vegas, becoming the first person to win Skate America three times consecutively since Todd Eldredge, who won four times from 1994 to 1997. Chen's 44-point margin of victory was the largest in the event's history.[116] Two weeks later, Chen won his second consecutive Internationaux de France title in Grenoble. He became the first singles skater since Evgeni Plushenko to win eight consecutive Grand Prix events.[117]

At the 2019-2020 Grand Prix Final in Turin, Chen and Yuzuru Hanyu were expected to compete for gold and silver.[118] Chen had a clean short program and a new personal-best score of 110.38, 0.15 short of Hanyu's world record at the time.[119] He went on to set new highest scores of 224.92 in the free skate and 335.30 in the combined total, breaking his own world records in both segments, winning the title with 43.87 points over Hanyu.[120][121] While suffering from influenza, Chen resumed training less than two weeks before the 2020 U.S. Championships, where he won his fourth national title with a new U.S. national short program record of 114.13, and became the first man to win four consecutive U.S. men's titles since Olympic champion Brian Boitano in 1988.[122][123] Chen was assigned to compete at the World Championships in Montreal but the event was canceled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.[124]

With the pandemic ongoing, skaters were largely assigned to the 2020-2021 Grand Prix based on geographic location; Chen was set to compete at Skate America.[125] Despite popping two planned jumps in the free skate, he won both the short program and the free skate with a total score of 299.15.[126][127] Afterward, speaking to Olympic Channel, Chen said he was taking a break from school to focus on skating and the 2022 Winter Olympics; he said; "[The Olympics] are the end goal ... It's the driving force behind a lot of what we do and a lot of the decisions that we make".[128] At the 2021 U.S. Championships, Chen won his fifth-consecutive national title, becoming the first man to win five consecutive titles since Dick Button, whom Chen cited as inspiration, saying:

It's incredible to try to follow in his footsteps ... It means the world. Dick is a true skating icon, and it just feels incredible to be trying to chase something that someone like that has done. I'm nowhere near the level he was at, but it's just cool to be able to be even mentioned in his sort of realm of legendness.[129]

At the 2021 World Championships in Stockholm, Chen placed third after the short program, in which he fell on his quadruple Lutz, with a score of 98.85.[130] He skated a clean free skate with five quads and finished first with a score of 222.03. He won his third consecutive world title with a cumulative score of 320.88, and became the first man since Patrick Chan (2011–13) and the first American since Scott Hamilton (1982–84) to win three world titles in a row.[131] In a post-competition interview, Chen said he felt he had grown since the 2018 Winter Olympics when he was in 17th place after the short program: "I think having had that experience now going into this competition, it definitely helps me retain some resiliency, I think. And I think that definitely, you know, thankfully came into play today."[132] Chen finished his season at the 2021 World Team Trophy in Osaka, where he placed first in both segments and Team USA finished second overall.[133][134]

Chen began the Olympic season at 2021 Skate America, where he placed fourth in the short program. He fell on his first quadruple jump and a poor landing on the second quadruple jump left him unable to execute the required two-jump combination. He placed second in the free skate despite doubling two of his six planned quads, finishing in third place overall behind Vincent Zhou and Shoma Uno. Speaking about the end of his undefeated run since the 2018 World Championships, Chen said: "it's not devastating. It was inevitably going to end as a winning streak at some point in time, and I am really proud of these guys up here".[13] Chen recovered a week later at 2021 Skate Canada International, where he won both segments to win the competition with a 47.63-point margin over silver medalist Jason Brown.[135] Chen's results secured him a place in the 2021-22 Grand Prix Final. which was subsequently canceled due to restrictions prompted by the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant.[136] At the end of November, Chen engaged Massimo Scali to help finalize the presentation of his Olympic programs. After initially skating to Benjamin Clementine's "Eternity" and a Mozart medley, he had decided to return to his "La Bohème" short program and Rocketman free skate from 2019-20 but was unable to work with choreographer Marie-France Dubreull in person due to the ongoing pandemic.[137] At the 2022 U.S. Championships, Chen won his sixth consecutive U.S. title, a feat only achieved by Dick Button 70 years earlier from 1946 to 1952. Chen scored 115.39, a new national record, in the short program,[138] and 212.62 in the free skate for a combined total score of 328.01.[139]

A month later, at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, Chen was the U.S. entry in the men's short program in the Olympic team event in which he had poorly performed four years earlier. He skated clean and placed first with a new personal best of 111.71, securing ten points for Team USA. He said; "[I]t feels great to have a short program I actually skated well, at an Olympic experience".[140] The U.S. team won the silver medal, Chen's second Olympic medal. Following a positive doping test of Russia's gold medalist Kamila Valieva, the team members were not awarded their medals, pending an investigation.[141] Two days later, Chen set a world record in the men's short program with a score of 113.97,[142] breaking the previous record of 111.82 set by Yuzuru Hanyu in 2020.[143] Chen won an Olympic gold with a free skate score of 218.63 that included five quads, finishing with a combined total score of 332.60.[144] His free-skate costume, which Chen's long-time collaborator New-York-based fashion designer Vera Wang designed, is now part of the permanent collections in the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.[145] After the Olympics, Chen withdrew from the 2022 World Championships due to injury.[146]

Following the cancellation of the 2020 World Championships during the COVID-19 pandemic, Chen coached young skaters at a rink in Connecticut and completed the Continuing Education Requirements (CERS), a mandatory course via the Professional Skaters Association, in which he scored 100% on his module exam.[169] In August 2023, Chen attended Javier Fernandez's annual summer camp in Spain with Brian Orser, Tracey Wilson, and Florent Amodio.[170]

According to Forbes, Chen had long-term contracts with 11 partners: Bridgestone, Panasonic, Comcast, Nike, Toyota, Visa, OMEGA,[178] Coca-Cola, United Airlines and Kellogg's;[179] and has also worked with consumer brands Grubhub, Airweave, and Invisalign.[180][181][182] He appeared in crossover television commercials for the 2022 film Jurassic World: Dominion with fellow Olympians Shaun White and Mikaela Shiffrin,[183] and promotional pieces and content for other sponsors.[184][185] Chen is a brand ambassador for Panasonic and fronted their "Green Impact" initiative with tennis player Naomi Osaka and Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps. The company engaged Chen, Osaka, and Phelps for its sustainability mission, and Chen made appearances for Panasonic at the annual technology conference CES 2023 in Las Vegas.[186][187] Chen contributed to a sleep study for Airweave that was overseen by Emmanuel Mignot, a sleep scientist and professor at Stanford University,[188] and he spoke at the 2023 Nikkei Sleep Conference in Tokyo. The conference focused on sleep as a social issue.[189]

In 2021, Chen was part of luxury jewelry designer David Yurman's social-media campaign "My New York",[190] and collaborated with Yurman to create an exclusive bracelet benefiting AAPI non-profit collective Gold House.[191] In January 2023, Chen was announced as one of the celebrity guests on the fifth season of the Apple podcast Time to Walk on the company's exercise tracking app Apple Fitness Plus; the podcast mixes music and inspirational monologues from musicians, athletes, and actors.[192][193] Chen has been represented by Yuki Saegusa at IMG since the beginning of his senior career.[194]

In June 2021, the Salt Lake City-Utah Games Committee, bidding to host the Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City in 2030 or 2034, named Chen to its Athlete Advisory Committee alongside alpine skiers Lindsey Vonn and Ted Ligety, speed skater Apolo Ohno, and others.[195] Chen said; "the developed infrastructure is already in place, so it makes a lot of sense to bring it back to Salt Lake City ... having an Olympics in a home town of a lot of young athletes can be very inspiring".[196]

Chen was announced as Goodwill Ambassador for the Lake Placid 2023 FISU World University Games, commonly known as Lake Placid 2023[197] and spearheaded Panasonic's "Green Impact" campaign at the International University Sports Federation's World Conference that was held in conjunction with the games. The theme of the conference was climate change.[198]

Chen's memoir One Jump at a Time: My Story was released in English by HarperCollins in November 2022 and in Japanese by Kadokawa in late March 2023.[199] The book described Chen's figure-skating career from his childhood as the youngest son of Chinese American immigrants to his success, his family's determination to fund expensive training, his hip injury and subsequent surgery in 2016, and his disappointment at the 2018 Winter Olympics.[200][201] In February 2023, HarperCollins released Chen's first children's book Wei Skates On, which is a picture book about feeling nervous and reframing negative thinking, with illustrations by Lorraine Nam. The book tells the story of a young boy named Wei who learns to face his fears and find joy in sports.[202][203] Wei Skates On was released in Japanese in August 2023 by Shinshokan.[204]

Chen, who skated to music by Philip Glass when he won his third-consecutive world title, was announced as an essay writer in the boxed set Philip Glass Piano Etudes: The Complete Folios 1-20 & Essays from Fellow Artists which will be released by Artisan Books on October 31, 2023. The boxed set contains The Complete Folios 1-20 and Studies in Time: Essays on the Music of Philip Glass, and was devised as an heirloom.[205] In August 2023, Penguin Books released the children's book Who Is Nathan Chen? [206] as part of its bestselling book series Who Was?, which tells the stories of prominent public figures and celebrities.[207][208]

Chen has also appeared in fashion and news magazines such as Vogue, GQ, Harper's Bazaar, Time, Teen Vogue, Elle, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, and Spur Magazine, and has been featured on the covers of World Figure Skating Magazine and International Figure Skating Magazine.[note 3]

Chen starred in three episodes of the Elton-John-produced show From the Top: Olympians and Rockstars with singer-songwriter Hayley Kiyoko on the Olympic Channel in 2021, which paired Olympic athletes with music stars. John served as executive producer and noted there "has long been an inextricable connection between music and sport, two worlds that often come together for cultural moments around the world".[220][221] Chen stars in the music video for Elton John and Britney Spears' acoustic version of the John song "Hold Me Closer"; in the video, Chen is depicted skating at Yale University's Ingalls Rink.[222] The collaboration between the duo can be traced back to 2019 when Chen first selected John's songs from the Oscar-winning motion picture Rocketman for his free skate.[223] In March 2023, Chen attended the Elton John AIDS Foundation's 31st annual Academy Awards party in West Hollywood, California.[224]

In July 2022, Chen made an appearance as a creator on the American dance-competition NBC television series Dancing With Myself, in which a creator demonstrates a series of dance moves each contestant must then perform.[225] In August 2022, he was featured in an episode of the CBS series Secret Celebrity Renovation, in which celebrities gift a renovation to a person who helped guide them to success. Chen gifted a renovation to Salt Lake City Sports Complex, which houses the rink on which he learned to skate as a toddler; Chen donated to the center a new skater's lounge and dressing room,[226] and dedicated the renovation to childhood coaches Stephanee Grosscup, Karel Kovar, and Evgenia Chernyshyova.[227] Chen also reunited with all four of his siblings to compete on the Steve Harvey-hosted game show Celebrity Family Feud against Marvel's Shang-Chi actor Simu Liu's team. The episode aired on ABC in August 2022.[228]

Chen has also appeared on American television talk shows such as Today,[229] The Late Late Show with James Corden,[230] The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,[231] and Access Hollywood.[232]

Chen regularly supports charitable causes; since 2017, he has been involved with Figure Skating in Harlem, a non-profit organization aiming to help girls of color grow in confidence, leadership skills, and academic achievement. In 2022, he was one of the honorees at the organization's 25th gala event.[233][234] Chen has worked with StandUp for Kids, a national non-profit program that works to end youth homelessness and has a branch in Orange County, California, near Chen's training base. Chen provided an opportunity for children to skate with him at Great Park Ice in 2021.[235] Chen is an investor in the nonprofit collective Gold House, which promotes the interests and safety of people of Asian and Pacific Islander descent.[236] Chen was part of a delegation when Gold House rang the opening bell at the Nasdaq Stock Exchange on May 2, 2023.[237] He spoke against violence against Asian Americans in 2021, calling it "unacceptable".[132] He said; "I worry about my parents more so than myself. I don't want them to go out in the park to walk and then get beat up or [have] worse things to happen to them."[238]

In early 2022, Chen partnered with the United States Department of Health and Human Services to aid in their public education initiative "We Can Do This", a campaign to promote COVID-19 vaccines.[239] he spoke to immunologist and former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) director Anthony Fauci.[240] Chen had been open about his anxiety before traveling to the 2021 World Championships in Stockholm during the pandemic.[241] In 2023, Chen joined the Elton John AIDS Foundation's social-media awareness campaign called InnerElton, an initiative protesting against LGBTQIA+ stigma and championing equality, health equity, and love. The campaign was launched in tandem with Elton John's and David Furnish's Rocket Fund, which aims to raise $125 million to help eliminate HIV/AIDS by 2030.[242]