Nathan Chen

Nathan Wei Chen (Chinese: 陈巍; born May 5, 1999) is an American figure skater. He is the 2022 Olympic champion, a three-time World champion (2018, 2019, 2021), the 2017 Four Continents champion, a three-time Grand Prix Final champion (2017, 2018, 2019), a ten-time Grand Prix medalist (8 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze), the 2022 Olympic gold medalist in the team event, the 2018 Olympic bronze medalist in the team event, and a six-time U.S. national champion (2017–22). At the junior level, Chen is the 2015–16 Junior Grand Prix Final champion, 2013–14 Junior Grand Prix Final bronze medalist, 2014 World Junior bronze medalist, and a six-time Junior Grand Prix medalist (5 gold, 1 silver). He became the youngest skater to win a U.S. Championship at the novice level in 2010, at age ten, a title he successfully defended the following season.

Chen, who has been referred to as one of the greatest men's figure skaters of all time by various news outlets, holds the highest winning percentage in competitions in the modern era with a more-than-three-year winning streak from 2018 to 2021. Chen is renowned for performing some of the most technically challenging programs in the world and is acclaimed for surpassing the expected athletic standards in the sport. He is known as the "Quad King" for his mastery of quadruple jumps. Chen is the first skater to have successfully landed each of the five reverse take-off quadruple jumps (Lutz, flip, loop, Salchow, and toeloop) in competition with a positive grade of execution. He has broken world and national records, and is the current world record holder for men in the short program and combined total score, and former world record holder in the free skate under the ISU Judging System. He currently holds the highest total scores of three major ISU competitions: the Olympics, the Four Continent Championships, and the Grand Prix Final. Chen is the first Asian American man to win U.S., world, and Olympic titles in single skating. At age 17, Chen became the youngest U.S. champion since Dick Button (1946), and in 2022 became the first man to win six consecutive U.S. titles since Button (1946–52). When Chen won the 2018 World Championships, he became the youngest World Champion since Evgeni Plushenko (2001). In 2021, he became the first U.S. man to win three consecutive world titles since Scott Hamilton (1982–1984). He is the first single figure skater to win both team and singles gold medals in the same Olympic games (2022).

After his gold medal-winning performance at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Chen was named Most Valuable Skater at the 2023 edition of the International Skating Union's ISU Skating Awards and earned a nomination for a Laureus World Sports Award. In 2022, he appeared in Time magazine's list of the 100 most-influential people in the world and was announced as one of Harper's Bazaar's Icons. Chen was included in Forbes's 2020 30 under 30 Sports list. Chen has written two books: his memoir One Jump at a Time: My Story and the children's book Wei Skates On.

Early life and family

Nathan Wei Chen was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Chinese immigrant parents Zhidong Chen, a research scientist from Guangxi, China, and Hetty Wang from Beijing. He has four older siblings: Alice, Tony, Colin and Janice Chen, who worked for the Jennifer Doudna lab and co-founded Mammoth Biosciences. Chen's mother was very involved in his skating career from the beginning, financing his skating activities, as well as the pursuits of his siblings, by working as a medical translator and cleaning houses. Chen was more active and fearless than his siblings, whom he tried to copy. He aspired to become a hockey goalkeeper after watching his older brothers play hockey, but his mother gave him figure skates.

To improve his coordination and strength and supplement his skating, Chen's mother enrolled him in gymnastics and ballet classes. He trained with Ballet West Academy for more than six years and competed at state level in gymnastics, placing first in the all-around at the Utah Boys' State Gymnastics Championships in St. George in 2008. As a child, Chen also trained as a pianist and won local competitions in his age group and later learned to play guitar as an extracurricular activity. According to Chen, he comes from "a huge chess family"—his siblings competed as children in chess tournaments—but, he says, he is less skilled in the game than the rest of his family.

Competitive skating career

Early career

Nathan Chen was part of an increase in the number of infant skaters following the 2002 Winter Olympics in his home town. 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. 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.

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. 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. 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. At his first international appearance, Chen won the novice men's event at the 2012 Gardena Spring Trophy in Italy.

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. Kovar introduced Chen to fellow Czechoslovakian skater Jozef Sabovčík nicknamed "Jumping Joe". Sabovčík was the first coach who told Chen not to stop in the middle of a program during a run-through. 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.

When Chen started working with jump specialist Rafael Arutyunyan when he was 10, he and his mother drove 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. Arutyunyan became his main coach in 2011.

Junior career

Chen became eligible to compete in the ISU Junior Grand Prix in 2012–2013 and made his debut in Austria, where he won the title with the combined total score of 222.00 with 37 points to spare. He withdrew from his second event in Croatia after sustaining a lower leg injury but won the junior men's bronze medal at the 2013 U.S. Championships. In 2013–2014, Chen was placed first at both Grand Prix assignments in Mexico and Belarus, and qualified for the 2013 Junior Grand Prix Final, where he finished third. 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, and won bronze at the 2014 World Junior Championships a few months later.

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. 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. A week before the championship, Chen developed a growth-related heel injury and competed with modified versions of both programs, placing eighth overall. After nationals, Chen was assigned to the 2015 World Junior Championships, where he finished fourth. In 2015–2016, Chen took first place in the Junior Grand Prix Final after winning both Grand Prix events in Colorado Springs, Colorado. and Logroño. At the 2016 U.S. Championships, Chen became the first U.S. man to land two quadruple jumps in a short program, 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. 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. 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.