Camden Pulkinen JGP 2019
ISU via Getty Images

National Team: Figure Skating Darci Miller

Camden Pulkinen Hopes to Turn Youth Olympic Experience into Long-Term Success

Three years ago, Camden Pulkinen represented the United States at the Winter Youth Olympic Games Lillehammer 2016.

It was his first international assignment.

Suddenly, the then-15-year-old, who had just placed 11th at the junior level of the 2016 U.S. Championships, was sharing the ice with the likes of Dmitri Aliev of Russia, Deniss Vasiljevs of Latvia, Sota Yamamoto and Koshiro Shimada of Japan and Junhwan Cha of South Korea.

Needless to say, the quads were coming fast and furious.

"I will remember that experience forever because it humbled me, stepping on the ice and almost getting hit by a Russian skater coming by," Pulkinen said. "But that was my favorite experience, really, just taking the ice with the best of the best at the time, and really seeing what they were doing and putting that on my list to do."

Pulkinen has thrived in the ensuing years. In both 2017 and 2018, he earned two Junior Grand Prix medals and qualified for the Junior Grand Prix Final, winning silver in 2017. He won junior silver at the U.S. Championships in 2017 and won the title at the level in 2018. At the 2018 ISU World Junior Championships, he placed sixth, and is working on the leap to the senior ranks.

Pulkinen was eighth in the short program at the 2019 GEICO U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Detroit, earning 78.39 points for his skate to "Oblivion" by Lucia Micarelli. He was in the unenviable position of skating immediately after Nathan Chen, who broke his own U.S. record with a score of 113.42 and brought the house down in the process.

"Let me ask you a question. How would you feel skating after Nathan?" Pulkinen asked with a laugh after his skate in Detroit. "I was planning for a big score because it's Nathan and he has so many different quads and so much experience at this level, and he's an Olympic bronze medalist and World champion. I knew it was something that I was going to have to train myself to do, to just get back to my process and to my performance, so that's exactly what I did."

Pulkinen trains at the World Arena Ice Hall in Colorado Springs, Colorado, under coaches Tom Zakrajsek, Drew Meekins and Becky Calvin, and alongside a group of elite skaters including Vincent Zhou, Andrew Torgashev and Tomoki Hiwatashi.

The atmosphere every day at practice, he says, has helped him prepare for moments like the one he faced in Detroit.

"It's like you never really have a day where it's easy because you're always going to have someone that's going to lay it down," Pulkinen said. "If you're not going to do it, someone else will, and it kind of pushes you every single session, every single jump, to be even better."

He came to Detroit with no expectations and no pressure as an incoming senior domestically. But following his performance at the Junior Grand Prix Final – first place in the short program but sixth in the free skate for fifth place overall – he's been working to strengthen the mental aspect of his skating.

"The free program, I definitely don't feel like I trained the mentality as well as I would've liked to," Pulkinen said of his performance in Vancouver. "We've trained a lot on just the sole mentality of the free program and practicing what it will feel like at an event because who knows where I'm going to be after the short, but I'm planning on someone before me to skate great and for me to have to go lay it down and skate even better after that."

Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned at U.S. Championships. With multiple jump errors in his West Side Story free skate, Pulkinen finished 12th overall in his national senior debut. But, mental and physical training takes time and the 2018 U.S. junior champion has his eyes set on the future.

For starters, he'd like to be crowned the 2019 World Junior champion in Zagreb, Croatia, March 4-10, 2019. Beyond next week, he hopes to receive two senior Grand Prix assignments and qualify for the Grand Prix Final.

And then, of course, there's the ultimate goal of making the 2022 U.S. Olympic Team.

Attending a Youth Olympic Games as his first international competition may have left Pulkinen somewhat spoiled, but he's used that Games experience as motivation as he focuses on the next three years and beyond.

"I always think back to that experience and imagine how I was there and how fun it was and how many people I met and how I felt with all the security all around, having all the spotlight on me, so it's definitely something that motivates me to hopefully go for Beijing," Pulkinen said. "I definitely want to achieve a lot more than just being a Youth Olympian."
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Players Mentioned

Nathan Chen

#9 Nathan Chen

May 5, 1999
Senior/Men
Salt Lake City
Vincent Zhou

#61 Vincent Zhou

Oct. 25, 2000
Senior/Men
San Jose, CA
Andrew Torgashev

#55 Andrew Torgashev

May 29, 2001
Junior/Men
Coral Springs, FL
Camden Pulkinen

#49 Camden Pulkinen

March 25, 2000
Junior/Men
Scottsdale, AZ
Tomoki Hiwatashi

#29 Tomoki Hiwatashi

Jan. 20, 2000
Junior/Men
Englewood, NJ

Players Mentioned

Nathan Chen

#9 Nathan Chen

Senior/Men
Salt Lake City
May 5, 1999
Vincent Zhou

#61 Vincent Zhou

Senior/Men
San Jose, CA
Oct. 25, 2000
Andrew Torgashev

#55 Andrew Torgashev

Junior/Men
Coral Springs, FL
May 29, 2001
Camden Pulkinen

#49 Camden Pulkinen

Junior/Men
Scottsdale, AZ
March 25, 2000
Tomoki Hiwatashi

#29 Tomoki Hiwatashi

Junior/Men
Englewood, NJ
Jan. 20, 2000