Nathan Chen

Nathan Chen started figure skating at age three in a pair of his sister's white skates.[18] He entered his first skating competition in 2003. From 2007 to 2009, he qualified to compete in the U.S. Junior Nationals at the juvenile and intermediate levels. He placed 10th and 3rd in juveniles at the 2007 and 2008 Junior Nationals. At the 2009 Junior Nationals, he won the intermediate men's silver medal.

Chen advanced to the novice level in the 2009–10 season. He became the youngest novice champion in the history of U.S. Figure Skating at age 10 by winning the national novice title at the 2010 U.S. Championships[19] in Spokane, Washington.[20] Due to his young age, he opted to remain at the novice level for the 2010–2011 season and defended his novice title at the 2011 U.S. Championships in Greensboro, North Carolina.[21][22]

In the 2011–2012 season, Chen moved up nationally to the junior level. He was coached by Genia Chernyshova and also traveled to Lake Arrowhead, California, to work with jump specialist Rafael Arutyunyan.[23] Arutyunyan became his main coach in mid-December 2011.[24] Chen won the junior men's title at the 2012 U.S. Championships in San Jose, California on January 24, 2012.[25] Making his first international appearance, he won the novice men's event at the 2012 Gardena Spring Trophy in Selva Val Gardena, Italy.[26][27]

Chen became age-eligible (13 years old) to compete in the ISU Junior Grand Prix (JGP) series.[25] His first assignment was JGP Austria in Linz from September 12–16, 2012.[28] He won the gold medal with the highest score (222.00 points) ever awarded at the time in the JGP series.[29] A lower leg injury resulted in Chen's withdrawal following the short program at JGP Croatia in early October 2012, ending his chances of qualifying for the JGP Final.[30] Nationally, having stayed at the junior level, he won the junior men's bronze medal at the 2013 U.S. Championships in Omaha, Nebraska, on January 22, 2013.[31]

Chen started his season by winning gold both at the ISU Junior Grand Prix in Mexico, in September 2013, and JGP in Belarus. He qualified for the Junior Grand Prix Final in Fukuoka, Japan, where he won the bronze medal.

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

On January 9, 2014 Chen broke a six-year U.S. junior men's record of 213.76 at the 2014 U.S. Championships in Boston, Massachusetts, en route to his second U.S. junior title.[32] His final combination spin in the short program received 4.86 points, the highest among active male skaters in the world.[33]

Chen was awarded the bronze medal at the 2014 World Junior Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria in March 2014.[34] The results of Chen and his teammates, Jordan Moeller and Shotaro Omori, gained three entries for the United States to the 2015 World Junior Championships.

Chen moved up to the senior level domestically. At the Pacific Sectional Championships in November 2014, he landed a clean quadruple toe loop and double toe loop combination (4T+2T) in his free skate,[35] winning the senior men's division, and advanced to the 2015 U.S. Championships in Greensboro, North Carolina. He developed a growth-related heel injury one week before the national championships, and ended up competing with scaled-back versions of his short and long programs.[36] He placed eighth overall in his senior national championship debut in January 2015.

After the competition, Chen was named to the U.S. team for the 2015 World Junior Championships.[37] He finished 4th at the event in Tallinn, Estonia, on March 8, 2015.

In the 2015–16 ISU Junior Grand Prix series, Chen won gold in both Colorado Springs, Colorado and in Logroño, Spain. In December 2015, he stood atop the podium at the JGP Final in Barcelona.[38]

In January 2016, Chen made history at the U.S. Championships by becoming the first American man to land two quadruple jumps in the short program.[39] On January 24, he became the first man in the world to land four quadruple jumps in a long program. He finished third overall behind Adam Rippon and Max Aaron, who landed zero and two quads, respectively, reigniting the debate over whether artistry should trump athleticism in figure skating scoring.[40] While attempting a jump during exhibitions on the same day, Chen sustained an avulsion injury to his left hip, leading to surgery on January 27.[41]

As a result, he withdrew from the 2016 World Junior Championships in Debrecen, Hungary, and the 2016 World Championships in Boston.[41] Chen underwent a month of rehabilitation at the U.S. Olympic Training Center (OTC) in Chula Vista, California,[42] and by May was training off-ice at OTC in Colorado Springs, Colorado.[43] He resumed full-strength on-ice training around July.[42]

Chen at the 2016–17 Grand Prix Final

Ahead of the 2016–2017 season, Chen traveled to Canton, Michigan, to have his programs choreographed by Marina Zueva. "I spent a week there, and we hit it off really well. We talked it over and thought it'd be a good idea to go to Michigan and work on PCS a little bit."[44] By September 2016, six months after his hip surgery, Zueva and Oleg Epstein were coaching him in Canton.[45] In preparation for his international senior debut, he started to train the 4Lz and 4F.[46]

Armed with four different types of quads — 4T, 4S, 4F, and 4Lz — Chen began his season with a gold medal at the 2016 CS Finlandia Trophy, 7.71 points ahead of silver medalist Patrick Chan of Canada. He then competed at two Grand Prix events. For his Grand Prix series debut at the 2016 Trophée de France in Paris, Chen cleanly landed a 4Lz+3T combination jump and a 4F jump in both his short and long programs. His short program scored 92.85, breaking the American short program record of 90.30 held by Olympic champion Evan Lysacek since the 2010 Winter Olympics.[47] After finishing fourth in France, he returned to Arutyunyan in California.[44] At the 2016 NHK Trophy in Sapporo, Chen placed second behind the reigning Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu and thus qualified for the Grand Prix Final (GPF) in Marseille, France.

Chen at the 2017 U.S. Championships

In December at the GPF, Chen placed 5th in the short program but won the free skate with a performance that included four quadruple jumps. Having obtained a total score of 282.85 points, he was awarded the silver medal behind Yuzuru Hanyu and became the second-youngest male skater (age 17) to medal at the GPF after Evgeni Plushenko, who won his first GPF medal at age 16 in 1999. He spent two weeks later that month working in Canton, Michigan, modifying the element order and choreography of his programs.[44]

At the 2017 U.S. Championships in Kansas City, Missouri, Chen performed two quadruple jumps (4Lz+3T and 4F) in the short program and five in the free skate (4Lz+3T, 4F, 4T+2T+2Lo, 4T and 4S), the first person to ever do so.[48] He won the U.S. title with the highest scores in U.S. Figure Skating history (106.39 in the short program, 212.08 in the free skate, 318.47 overall). Following the event, he and teammate Jason Brown were named to the 2017 World team by U.S. Figure Skating.[49][50]

In February, Chen won the short program at the 2017 Four Continents and subsequently, the competition, becoming the third person to score over 100 points in a short program[51] and over 300 points in an International Skating Union competition.[52][53]

In April, at the World Championships in Helsinki, the boots that he had begun using after Four Continents were on the verge of falling apart; however, he decided to continue using them, using duct tape and hockey laces, because he felt that the back-up boots were too new.[54][55] He attempted a record total of eight quadruple jumps, two in the short program and six in the long program, but fell on two quadruple jumps in his long program and placed sixth overall at the competition.[56] He and teammate Jason Brown, who placed seventh, secured three berths for the United States in the men's event at the 2018 Winter Olympics.

Chen rounded off the season with a 3rd place team and 2nd place personal finish at the 2017 World Team Trophy in Tokyo.

Chen started the 2017–2018 season by winning the 2017 CS U.S. International Figure Skating Classic in September, debuting his short program "Nemesis" choreographed by Shae-Lynn Bourne and free skate "Mao's Last Dancer" choreographed by Lori Nichol. He landed his first quad loop in the free skate and thus became the first skater to land five different quads (4T, 4S, 4Lo, 4F and 4Lz) in competition.[57]

He was selected to represent Team USA alongside Jeremy Abbott, Karen Chen, and Mirai Nagasu at the Japan Open. There, his free program earned second place behind Javier Fernandez.

In his second Grand Prix series, Chen won his first Grand Prix title at the 2017 Rostelecom Cup in Moscow.[58] After placing first in the short program and second in the free skate, he defeated the reigning World and Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan.[59] At 2017 Skate America, Chen won his second Grand Prix title finishing ahead of Adam Rippon.[60] He skated the short program, which earned him a new personal best score, with a left blade that had a nick in the outside edge.[61] He replaced the blade for the free skate but stated afterward, "I think that was a bad call. It was a little too sharp on the inside edge, and every time I pressed into it for sal(chow), toe and even flip, it would catch into the ice way harder than I was used to."[62] With two victories, Chen earned the top qualifying spot for the Grand Prix Final.

At the Final in Nagoya, Chen took the lead in the short program and the competition over Shoma Uno of Japan and Mikhail Kolyada of Russia to win his first Grand Prix Final title. He became the third American in history to win the Final, the first since Evan Lysacek in 2009.

At the 2018 U.S. Championships in San Jose, California, Chen performed a total seven clean quadruple jumps (two in the short program and five in the free skate) and scored 315.23 to win his second consecutive national title.[63] Following the event, Chen, Adam Rippon, and Vincent Zhou were nominated by U.S. Figure Skating to compete at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea as part of the U.S. Olympic Figure Skating Team.[64]

At the 2018 Winter Olympics, Chen placed fourth in the men's short program of the team event, became the first skater to land a quad flip at the Olympics.[65] Chen won a bronze medal in the team event alongside teammates Mirai Nagasu, Bradie Tennell, Adam Rippon, Alexa Scimeca Knierim, Chris Knierim, Maia Shibutani, and Alex Shibutani,[66] became one of the youngest male figure skating Olympic medalists. Due to nerves in the individual men's event, Chen performed poorly in the short program, placing seventeenth. In the free skate, he made Olympic history by becoming the first man to attempt six quads and land five cleanly (official video at the reference link[67]). He placed first in the free skate with a score of 215.08, the highest in Olympic history, and earned a total score of 297.35 to move up twelve places[68] from the short program to finish in fifth place overall.[69] Chen was invited to perform in the exhibition gala, but withdrew after contracting the flu and left PyeongChang early to avoid infecting any of his American teammates.[70] His commercial sponsors for the Olympics included Coca-Cola,[71] United Airlines,[72] Kellogg's,[73] and Bridgestone.[74]

Chen (center) with Shoma Uno (left) and Mikhail Kolyada (right) at the 2018 World Championships podium

In March at the 2018 World Figure Skating Championships in Milan, Chen placed first in both the short (101.94) and free (219.46) programs. He again attempted and landed six quads in the free program, winning the 2018 world champion title with a total score of 321.40 points and becoming the second skater to have ever broken 320 points after Yuzuru Hanyu. Chen becomes the first U.S. men's world champion since Evan Lysacek in 2009 and the tenth in history. He became the youngest (18 years 10 months 19 days) men's world champion since Evgeni Plushenko (18 years 4 months 19 days) in 2001. Chen's victory and teammate Max Aaron's eleventh-place finish ensure Team USA three men's berths at next year's World Figure Skating Championships in Japan. His margin of victory over silver medalist Shoma Uno was one of the largest in history at 47.63 points.[75]

Chen at the 2018 Internationaux de France

Chen at the 2018 Internationaux de France

Chen started college at Yale this season. In an in-depth Olympic Channel Facebook Live interview[76] with 2014 Olympic Champion Meryl Davis, Chen expanded on his school, skating, future plans, life, and other interesting topics. Chen: “I love skating. I love competing. I love training. I love to be around all my fellow skaters. But at the end of the day I am not going to be skating for all the rest of my life. There will be a moment I’ll have to take a step away from skating and focus on something else. I think right now I am attempting to do both just so I can bridge that gap, so when I am deciding my time in skating is up I can start the second half of my life…”

Chen's assignments for the 2018-19 Grand Prix series were Skate America and Internationaux de France.[77] Fortunately for Chen, Skate America took place during the Yale October recess and Internationaux de France fell during the Thanksgiving recess. The 2018–19 Grand Prix Final begun the day before Yale's pre-finals reading period starts. And the 2019 World Championships, in Japan, were during Yale's spring break.[78]

At Skate America in Everett, Washington in October, Chen skated to the music of "Caravan" (choreographed by Shae-Lynn Bourne) in the short program and "Land of All" (choreographed by Samuel Chouinard and Marie-France Dubreuil) in the free skate. He won both segments of the competition and repeats as men's champion of Skate America.[79]

In an interview with ISU about his programs,[80] Chen said: "The short program (Caravan) is a lot of fun." “She (Bourne) wants me to dance to the music so that other people are excited to dance as well.” “I originally chose the piece (Land of All) for the long because I needed something that contrasted the short,” Chen noted. "The music is the soundtrack to a movie called “Desierto” and it is about immigration into the US. Obviously, I don’t want to make my programs about this or anything political but, at the same time, just because it has that deep and darker meaning requires me to add another layer to my skating,” he explained.

At Internationaux de France in Grenoble in November, Chen fell on his quad flip in the short program and placed third behind Jason Brown and Alexander Samarin entering the free skate. Chen landed three quadruple jumps (4F, 4T and 4T+3T) in the free skate and won the competition with a total score of 271.58. He has now won five consecutive Grand Prix gold medals.

By winning both Skate America and Internationaux de France Chen has qualified to compete in 2018–19 Grand Prix Final to be held in Vancouver, Canada.

At the 2018–19 Grand Prix Final in early December, Chen competed with the other five qualifiers, Shoma Uno, Michal Březina, Sergei Voronov, Cha Jun-hwan and Keegan Messing (Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu qualified but withdrew due to injury). Chen had mistakes in both his short and long programs - a missed combination jump in the short program and a fall in the long program, but won both segments of the competition and collected his second GPF title.[81]

The gold medal marks Chen the fourth man after Evgeni Plushenko, Patrick Chan and Yuzuru Hanyu to win consecutive Grand Prix Finals since the event's debut in 1995, and the second man after Evgeni Plushenko to win every one of his Grand Prix competitions in two consecutive seasons.

At the 2019 U.S. Championships in Detroit, Chen performed two near flawless programs for the first time of the season and won his third consecutive national title. He scored 113.42 for a two-quad short program (official NBC Sports Video on YouTube) and 228.80 for a four-quad free skate (official NBC Sports Video on YouTube) for a total of 342.22 points. Chen became the first man to win three straight national titles since Johnny Weir in 2004–2006.[82] He said “I’m happy with what I did, and hopefully I can do that in other competitions, The first few jumps are a little like a checklist, and once I get done with that, I can focus on the music and the audience. Nationals is no joke. You can’t discount any of these other skaters who are here. I’m really proud of myself with all of the work I put in, and it’s an honor to be up here with these two guys. I don’t mind the training atmosphere I am in, and I am so thankful Yale has given me the ice time to pursue my dreams outside of school. I feel like I am improving competition to competition. This gives me a lot of confidence going into the future.”.[83]

Next competing at the 2019 World Championships in Saitama, Japan in March, Chen successfully defended his world champion title and broke the world records for both the free skate and total score, with 216.02 and 323.42 points respectively.[84] The gold in Saitama was Chen's 11th victory out of 12 individual competitions over the past two seasons. He became the first U.S. man to win back-to-back world titles since Scott Hamilton won four in a row from 1981 to 1984. With teammate Vincent Zhou winning the bronze medal, two Americans stood on the men's podium at Worlds for the first time since 1996, when Todd Eldredge won gold and Rudy Galindo took the bronze in Edmonton, Canada.

Chen concluded the season at another event in Japan, the 2019 World Team Trophy, where Team USA won the gold medal.[85]

Chen at the 2019 Internationaux de France

Chen opened his season with a free skate at the Japan Open, where he placed first in the men's event, contributing to Team North America's bronze medal finish. Chen then turned to the Grand Prix, defending his title at Skate America, held in Las Vegas, with his third consecutive win. This is the first time anyone won Skate America three times consecutively since Todd Eldredge won four in a row from 1994 to 1997.[86] The 44-point margin of victory was the largest ever at Skate America.[87] He then won his second straight Internationaux de France title in Grenoble, and became the first singles skater since Evgeni Plushenko nearly two decades earlier to win eight straight Grand Prix events.[88] In winning two Grand Prix events, Chen qualified for the Grand Prix Final.

At the Grand Prix Final, Chen was widely perceived as the co-favourite for the title alongside Japan's Yuzuru Hanyu. Chen skated cleanly in the short program, setting a new personal best score of 110.38, 0.15 short of Hanyu's short program world record at the time which had been set at the 2018 Rostelecom Cup. Hanyu failed to complete his combination jump, resulting in Chen leading by almost thirteen points going into the free skate.[89] Chen skated cleanly in the free skate as well, setting new world records for the free skate (224.92 points) and total score (335.30 points), and beating Hanyu for the second time since the Olympics.[90] Chen's win made him the first singles skater to win all his Grand Prix events in three consecutive seasons.

Suffering from the flu, Chen was only able to fully resume training less than two weeks before the 2020 U.S. Championships. Competing in Greensboro, NC, Chen won his fourth national title and became the first man to win four consecutive U.S. men's titles since Olympic champion Brian Boitano in 1988.[91] He was assigned to compete at the World Championships in Montreal, but these were cancelled as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.[92]

With the pandemic still raging, the ISU assigned the Grand Prix series based largely on geographic location, with Chen again set to attend Skate America, considered the heavy favourite to win.[93] He won both the short program and the free skate, with a total score of 299.15, despite popping two planned jumps in the free.[94][95] After the competition, Chen revealed to Olympic Channel[96] that he is taking a break from school to focus on skating and the next Olympics. “(The Olympics) are the end goal,” Chen said. “It's the driving force behind a lot of what we do and a lot of the decisions that we make."

Chen made history at the 2021 U.S. Championships, winning his fifth consecutive National title. He became the first man to win five consecutive National titles since Dick Button, who won seven straight from 1946 to 1952. Chen cited Button as inspiration. "It’s incredible to try to follow in his footsteps," Chen said of Button. "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." Chen stated prior to his free performance, that he was going to decide on the number of quads in the free skate based on how he felt at the warm-up. Chen then went out to attempt five quads, landing four of them cleanly.[97][98]

Chen (center) with Alexander Samarin (left) and Kévin Aymoz (right) at the 2019 Internationaux de France podium

Chen (center) with Jason Brown (left) and Alexander Samarin (right) at the 2018 Internationaux de France podium

Chen (center) with Shoma Uno (left) and Mikhail Kolyada (right) at the 2018 World Championships podium

Chen (center) with Yuzuru Hanyu (left) and Shoma Uno (right) at the 2017 Four Continents Championships podium

Chen (left) with Yuzuru Hanyu (center) and Shoma Uno (right) at the 2016–17 Grand Prix Final podium

Chen (center) with Dmitri Aliev (left) and Sota Yamamoto (right) at the 2015–16 Junior Grand Prix Final podium

Small medals for short and free programs awarded only at ISU Championships. At team events, medals awarded for team results only. Current ISU world bests highlighted in bold and italic.

2015 Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final Junior men's singles medal ceremonies.

Small medals for short and free programs awarded only at ISU Championships.