Karen Chen Heads To NHK Trophy More Balanced and In Her Groove

When Karen Chen was preparing for 2019 Skate America presented by American Cruise Lines in October, she was struck by a scary realization.
 
She couldn't conjure up her last memory from competing at a Grand Prix event.
 
After missing the 2018-19 Grand Prix season due to a stress fracture in her right foot, it had been two years since she'd last laced up for a Grand Prix – Skate America in 2017.
 
"I think before, even for competitions, I was always the type to get really nervous about it," Chen said. "I wasn't the type to skate for competitions, and be really excited and pumped for competitions. I was always more nervous and anxious. But definitely, Skate America, I felt like, 'Oh my god.'"
 
The feeling followed her from her new home at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, to ORLEANS Arena in Las Vegas. But when she stepped on the ice, though her legs were shaky, it all came back to her.
 
"When I stepped on the ice, I was like, 'Oh, ice is ice, and it's familiar, and I'm just here to do my programs,'" Chen said.
 
If only it had been that easy.
 
Chen came down with a cold that week, so she was congested and tired and struggled to breathe normally during her skates in Las Vegas. In sixth place after the short program, she slipped to 10th in the free skate to finish eighth overall.
 
But she acknowledges that the nerves and the cold were only part of the problem.
 
"Skate America definitely did not go the way I had hoped it would," Chen said. "I definitely didn't skate the way I was hoping to skate, and I felt that with college and managing my classes and that balance, it's taking a while to figure out. But I think I learned a lot from that competition, so I've kind of adjusted my schedule as I get ready for NHK (Trophy)."
 
Chen will take the ice for NHK Trophy in Sapporo, Japan, on Nov. 22-24 with a far better grasp on how to handle things.
 
She started as a freshman at Cornell this fall and adopted a similar arrangement to two-time reigning World champion Nathan Chen; attending an Ivy League university and training solo while being coached long-distance.
 
"I totally feel that there's an adjustment period, and I thought that I'd be able to adjust faster," Chen said. "I didn't know what to expect, and when it all kind of hit, it hit pretty hard. It takes time to kind of adjust to that and figure everything out, because skating is really important, but so is school and my grades."
 
Chen has been coached by Tammy Gambill in Colorado Springs, Colorado, for the last seven years, and has been sending her videos of her jumps and updates on how she's feeling.
 
She squeezes in ice time at the local rink in Ithaca around her classes – on Tuesdays and Thursdays, she goes to class in the morning and skates in the afternoon, while on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, she'll skate in the morning before classes.
 
Ice time is limited, as is Chen's energy, so she's learned how to focus her training sessions to make the most of them.
 
"I worked really hard about fine-tuning my schedule," Chen said. "Let's say I have two hours on the ice that I have to myself to skate. Instead of going hard the whole two hours, I'm breaking it up and kind of setting goals for specific sections during a specific amount of time."
 
Chen is also figuring out how to better manage in her classes – a human development major, she's taking classes on adulthood and aging, infancy and childhood, and psychology of gender, plus a required freshman writing seminar – and has friends who send her their notes and other updates when she's out of town for skating.
 
She's just finished her second round of preliminary exams (Cornell's equivalent to midterms), and while she's been stressed out studying, she's managed to squeeze in a little fun here and there.
 
"I've joined the figure skating club, and I take the time when they practice to just stand on the ice and fool around and just talk to everybody, so it's sort of a social thing for me, which is actually a lot of fun," Chen said. "I try to go as much as I can to just talk to the girls, and also sometimes they'll hold social events. For Halloween, they had a Halloween skate night, and we decorated cookies to sell for fundraising, so there are just small little events that are a lot of fun."
 
However, Chen has often had to pass on going to events on campus to prioritize either training or school.
 
"In a way I still have to make those sacrifices because skating and grades are definitely priorities over having fun, to an extent," she said. "But I definitely make sure that I get the time to just relax and refresh."
 
The goal now is to also avoid getting sick – a Herculean task at college, where Chen says everyone is coughing – but now that she has a better handle on her life, she has bigger goals for this season. Chen would like to medal in Japan, podium at the 2020 U.S. Figure Skating Championships and make the World Championships team.
 
It might've taken longer than she'd liked, but Chen is finally getting back to where she'd like to be.
 
"I'm feeling a lot better," Chen said. "I feel like I'm really trying to figure out how to balance school and skating, so I'm kind of finding my groove, which I think is really great."