Nathan Chen

Nathan Chen
Nathan Wei Chen (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 golds, 1 silver, 1 bronze), a 2022 Olympic silver medalist in the team event, a 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 golds, 1 silver).
Chen, who is regarded as one of the greatest figure skaters of all time, holds the highest-winning percentage in competitions in the modern era with a more-than-three-year winning streak from 2018 to 2021 in what has been described as one of the most-dominant four-year stretches in the sport's history. Chen is recognized for performing the most technically difficult programs in the world and is credited for exceeding the expectations of athletic ability in the sport; he is known as the "Quad King" for his mastery of quadruple jumps. Chen is the first skater to have landed all types of quadruple jumps, except the quadruple Axel, in competition. He has broken world and national records, and is the current world record holder for men in all three competition segments: the short program, free skate, and combined total score under the ISU Judging System. He currently holds the highest total scores of the major ISU competitions: the Olympics, the World Championships, 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).
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 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 is co-founder of Mammoth Biosciences. Chen's mother was very involved in his skating career from the beginning; she financed his skating activities, and the pursuits of his siblings, by working as a medical translator and cleaning houses. Chen was more active and fearless than his siblings, who 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 to 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 is from "a huge chess family"; as children, his siblings competed in chess tournaments, but he says he is less skilled in chess 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.
He started working with jump specialist Rafael Arutyunyan when he was 10; Chen 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.
Senior career
2016–2017 season: Senior international debut, Four Continents title and first senior national title
In preparation for his senior international debut, Nathan Chen worked on a new short program with Marina Zoueva, while Zoueva and Oleg Epstein coached him in Canton, Michigan. Chen opened the pre-Olympic season at the 2016 CS Finlandia Trophy, winning gold ahead of Patrick Chan. 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. Chen placed fourth overall and returned to California to work with Rafael Arutyunyan before the NHK Trophy, where he finished second behind Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu. 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.
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. 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. 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, and became the youngest Four Continents men's champion in history until Kao Miura in 2023. 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. 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. Chen ended the season at the 2017 World Team Trophy, where he finished second in the short program and fourth in the free skate. The U.S. team finished third overall.
2017–2018 season: Pyeongchang Olympics and first World title
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. 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. 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, 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. 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. Chen, Adam Rippon, and Vincent Zhou were named to the Olympic Team.
At the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Chen performed his short program in the team event poorly and placed fourth, but won bronze alongside his teammates. 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". 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. Chen caught influenza and withdrew early from the gala to avoid infecting other athletes. 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. 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). In early 2018, Chen was accepted into Yale University.
2018–2019 season: Second consecutive World title
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. At 2018 Skate America, Chen skated to "Caravan" by Fanfare Ciocărlia in his short program and to "Land of All" by Woodkid during his free skate. He won both segments and defended his title, winning by the largest point margin in the competition's history. 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. He recovered and won the event with a total score of 271.58. 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. With the win, Chen became the fourth man to win consecutive Grand Prix Final titles since the event debuted in 1995. 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.
Competing at the 2019 World Championships in Saitama during Yale's spring break, 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). With teammate Vincent Zhou winning bronze, two Americans stood on the men's podium at Worlds for the first time since 1996. Chen traveled back to Japan to conclude his season at the 2019 World Team Trophy, where he won both segments; Team USA placed first.
2019–2020 season: Third consecutive Grand Prix Final title
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. 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. 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.
At the 2019-2020 Grand Prix Final in Turin, Chen and Yuzuru Hanyu were expected to compete for gold and silver. 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. 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. 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. Chen was assigned to compete at the World Championships in Montreal but the event was canceled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
2020–2021 season: Third consecutive World title
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. 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. 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". 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.
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. 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. 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." 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.
2021–2022 season: Olympic gold medal
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". 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. 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. 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. 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, and 212.62 in the free skate for a combined total score of 328.01.
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". 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. Two days later, Chen set a world record in the men's short program with a score of 113.97, breaking the previous record of 111.82 set by Yuzuru Hanyu in 2020. 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. 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. After the Olympics, Chen withdrew from the 2022 World Championships due to injury.
Show-skating career
Chen started performing in ice shows from an early age and at five years old, he made appearances in televised shows such as "Holiday On Ice: Las Vegas Style" (2004), and at seven years old in "Supermen On Ice" (2006). After winning his first novice title, he was invited to skate in shows all over the world, including China in 2010, Thailand in 2011, and Malaysia in 2012. Since his early childhood, Chen has performed in the annual "Sun Valley on Ice" summer shows in Idaho, and made several appearances in Harvard University's show "An Evening with Champions".
Since his senior international debut in the 2016–2017 season, Chen has been a regular feature on Stars On Ice Japan, the Stars On Ice U.S. Tour, Dreams On Ice, and THE ICE in Japan. In June 2019, Chen was cast in Yuna Kim's show All That Skate, which took place at the Olympic Park KSPO Dome in Seoul, South Korea, and was directed by Canadian choreographers Sandra Bezic and David Wilson. A few weeks later, Chen was a guest skater with Evgeni Plushenko and Shizuka Arakawa in Prince Ice World in Japan. He headlined the annual "Ice Spectacular" at the Vail Skating Festival in Colorado in December 2022, and Skating Club of Boston's Ice Chips in April 2023. Chen will be featured in the Detroit Tree Lighting event that takes place on November 17, 2023, and the 'Light Up the Season' special broadcast on WXYZ-TV. He is scheduled to perform in Scott Hamilton's annual benefit show "Scott Hamilton & Friends" in Nashville on November 19, 2023, and will return to Vail for the "Ice Spectacular" in December 2023.
Coaching
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. In August 2023, Chen attended Javier Fernandez's annual summer camp in Spain with Brian Orser, Tracey Wilson, and Florent Amodio.
Skating technique and style
Chen has been commended for his technical skill and impact on figure skating: 1984 Olympic Champion Scott Hamilton compared him to Dick Button; according to Hamilton, Chen is "not ... satisfied with the status quo and building his athleticism" in an unprecedented way but combining the athleticism with "very significant artistic performances". Olympic Champion Hayes Jenkins commented Chen's "arms, his hands, his carriage" are fluid, unexaggerated, and purposeful and said Chen is "aware of the music". According to Cati Snarr of Ballet West, where Chen trained as a child, Chen "has perfect placement (relative positioning of his torso, head and limbs), perfect turnout (hip rotation) and natural kinesthetic awareness that some kids never get"; while 1980 Olympic Champion Robin Cousins said there is a "wonderful, joyous feeling about [Chen's] skating". From a musical perspective, Chen has progressed with senior programs set to a variety of music such as classical pieces Le Corsaire and the Polovtsian Dances, works by Igor Stravinsky, tracks from melancholy contemporary artists like Woodkid and Philip Glass, upbeat pop songs by Elton John, and contemporary Latin music.
According to Alexei Mishin, fundamentals of the technique he teaches are part of the reason for Chen's consistency: the skater should have a very tight pulling-in position, start the rotation during take-off, and rotate very quickly. Chen's rotation position has been used as an example of what can be defined as the perfect air position; according to George S. Rossano, it is characterized by a vertical axis running through the long axis of his body without hunched shoulders or rounded back and no bend at the waist or the knees, and his arms are pulled tight across his torso like a seat belt. When Chen learned this technique from his childhood coach and former Mishin student Karel Kovar, he trained in "Mishin's Magic Vest", which has sensors that emit beeping sounds when the skater achieves the correct arm position.
Public life and popular culture
Endorsements
According to Forbes, Chen had long-term contracts with 11 partners: Bridgestone, Panasonic, Comcast, Nike, Toyota, Visa, OMEGA, Coca-Cola, United Airlines and Kellogg's; and has also worked with consumer brands Grubhub, Airweave, and Invisalign. He appeared in crossover television commercials for the 2022 film Jurassic World: Dominion with fellow Olympians Shaun White and Mikaela Shiffrin, and promotional pieces and content for other sponsors. 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. Chen contributed to a sleep study for Airweave that was overseen by Emmanuel Mignot, a sleep scientist and professor at Stanford University, and he spoke at the 2023 Nikkei Sleep Conference in Tokyo. The conference focused on sleep as a social issue.
In 2021, Chen was part of luxury jewelry designer David Yurman's social-media campaign "My New York", and collaborated with Yurman to create an exclusive bracelet benefiting AAPI non-profit collective Gold House. 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. Chen has been represented by Yuki Saegusa at IMG since the beginning of his senior career.
Ambassadorships
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. 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".
Chen was announced as Goodwill Ambassador for the Lake Placid 2023 FISU World University Games, commonly known as Lake Placid 2023 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.
Books and magazines
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. 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. 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. Wei Skates On was released in Japanese in August 2023 by Shinshokan.
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. In August 2023, Penguin Books released the children's book Who Is Nathan Chen? as part of its bestselling book series Who Was?, which tells the stories of prominent public figures and celebrities.
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.
Television
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". 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. 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. In March 2023, Chen attended the Elton John AIDS Foundation's 31st annual Academy Awards party in West Hollywood, California.
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. 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, and dedicated the renovation to childhood coaches Stephanee Grosscup, Karel Kovar, and Evgenia Chernyshyova. 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.
Chen has also appeared on American television talk shows such as Today, The Late Late Show with James Corden, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and Access Hollywood.
Philanthropic work and supported causes
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. 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. Chen is an investor in the nonprofit collective Gold House, which promotes the interests and safety of people of Asian and Pacific Islander descent. Chen was part of a delegation when Gold House rang the opening bell at the Nasdaq Stock Exchange on May 2, 2023. He spoke against violence against Asian Americans in 2021, calling it "unacceptable". 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."
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. he spoke to immunologist and former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) director Anthony Fauci. Chen had been open about his anxiety before traveling to the 2021 World Championships in Stockholm during the pandemic. 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.
Awards and recognition
Nathan Chen has received numerous accolades for his achievements, and impact on figure skating and the Asian American community. In 2023, he was nominated for a Laureus World Sports Award for Breakthrough of the Year and was named Most Valuable Skater at the International Skating Union's annual ISU Awards. Chen has received nominations for an ESPY Award, a People's Choice Award, and James E. Sullivan Award; and been recognized on reputable lists such as Time magazine's Time100 that lists the 100 most-influential people in the world, the Time Next Generation Leaders List, Forbes 30 Under 30 Sports list, and Harper's Bazaar'''s Icons.
Committee of 100, a non-partisan leadership organization of prominent Chinese Americans, presented Chen with its Trailblazer Award for Commitment to Excellence in 2022. Chen is also a Gold House A100 Honoree and has been inducted into the Gold House A100 Hall of Fame. On January 26, 2023, U.S. President Joe Biden acknowledged Chen during a speech at the White House, where Chen was a guest at the President and First Lady Jill Biden's Lunar New Year reception.
Personal life and education
Nathan Chen attended Hawthorne Elementary School in Salt Lake City; he was accepted into the school district's extended learning program, in which he took classes one level above his grade. He later attended West High School in Salt Lake City and Rim of the World High School in Lake Arrowhead, California, and graduated from high school at California Connections Academy. He was admitted to Yale University in 2018 and enrolled at Jonathan Edwards College. After his sophomore year, Chen took a leave of absence to prepare for the 2022 Winter Olympics but returned in late 2022 to complete his undergraduate degree in statistics and data science. During his junior year, Chen worked in cardio-oncologist Jennifer M. Kwan's research lab at Yale School of Medicine, and was the recipient of an American Heart Association undergraduate research award to continue his genomics and cardiovascular research projects. Chen is due to graduate in 2024 and plans to do a post-baccalaureate premedical program in preparation for medical school.
Records and achievements
Chen has set seven world record scores in the +5/-5 Grade of Execution (GOE) system, one in the short program, three in the free skate, and three in the combined total score. He is the current world record holder in all three segments.
Programs
Competition and exhibition programs
Programs after the 2022 Winter Olympics
Competitive highlights
Bibliography
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See also
List of career achievements by Nathan Chen
Nathan Chen programs
List of highest scores in figure skating
List of Olympic medalists in figure skating
World medalists
Notes and references
Citations
External links
Nathan Chen at US Figure Skating (archived April 7, 2023)
Nathan Chen at Team USA (archived July 31, 2023)
Nathan Chen at Olympics.com (archived July 31, 2023)
Nathan Chen at SkatingScores
Nathan Chen at RinkResults
! colspan="3" style="border-top: 5px solid #78FF78;" |World Record Holders
1999 births
Living people
American male single skaters
American sportspeople of Chinese descent
Figure skaters from Salt Lake City
Sportspeople from Salt Lake City
Sportspeople from Utah
Figure skaters at the 2018 Winter Olympics
Figure skaters at the 2022 Winter Olympics
Season-end world number one figure skaters
Season's world number one figure skaters
Olympic bronze medalists for the United States in figure skating
Olympic silver medalists for the United States in figure skating
Olympic gold medalists for the United States in figure skating
Medalists at the 2018 Winter Olympics
Medalists at the 2022 Winter Olympics
World Junior Figure Skating Championships medalists
Four Continents Figure Skating Championships medalists
World Figure Skating Championships medalists
American autobiographers
21st-century American memoirists
Yale University alumni
Yale College alumni
21st-century American writers
American children's writers