Just when you think we've learned all there is to know about
Nathan Chen, the Olympic team medalist, two-time World and four-time U.S. champion discovers something new about himself for us.
"I surprised myself," he said in a recent interview with the U.S. Figure Skating Fan Zone after taking part in an Instagram live broadcast for skating fans. "It's like, 'Hmm, I'm on YouTube. What is wrong with me? I never do this.'"
What Chen, now 20, was referring to is something us figure skating fans are quite familiar with: He found himself on the web, watching past skating program after program, something he had never done before.
Some of those programs were his and others were not, but with last month's ISU World Figure Skating Championships set for Montreal being canceled and Chen staying at home like the rest of us during the COVID-19 pandemic, the skater is reminded – and has rediscovered – just how much he loves skating.
"I've been missing skating a lot," he admitted to fans on Instagram. He added: "Sometimes I feel like with school, I'll feel, 'I wish I could be a normal student.' But not having skating at all (right now) makes me realize, 'Man, I really like skating. I love being on the ice all the time.'"
It was a strange finish to what had been a spectacular season for Chen, who in January became the first U.S. man to win four U.S. titles in a row since Brian Boitano did so from 1985-88. With Worlds delayed and then canceled, the two-time and reigning champion couldn't go head-to-head with rival Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan for the second time this season on the biggest of stages.
His season was ended abruptly, and then he was sent home for good with Yale moving spring classes online.
It has strangely provided Chen the perfect checking-in time, however, being two years removed from the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 and now less than two years away from Beijing, in 2022.
"Being forced to take a step off of the ice is allowing me to take a look at why I love the sport so much," he said. "This sport has taken up a majority of my life – I started when I was 3 – but now it feels like it's missing. It feels strange not having any ice to go onto right now."
Chen was honest and reflective in discussing how he thinks the truncated season just past had gone for him, while also casting his eyes towards February 2022.
"The Olympics are so soon… it's crazy that it's only two years away," he said with a surprised look on his face, laughing. "I have to sit down with Raf and the rest of my team to figure out what I want to accomplish in the next two years and how I'm going to do it.
"In a shortened version, I'm happy with what I've done the last two years. I want to continue that."
Halfway Mark: The Learning Curve
It is, indeed, less than two years from the 2022 Olympic Winter Games, and while Chen said he has to make sure he works hard to make the team in a competitive U.S. men's field, he is most certainly one of the medal favorites with Hanyu, a race many see to be for the gold.
Yet Chen doesn't hesitate in looking back and summing up how he believes he's arrived to where he is at the present moment with his skating – both internally and externally.
"I've been very happy with my progression since PyeongChang," he said. "I'm happy with my improvement in different aspects. I just want to continue to get better. That's going to be my idea the next couple of years, too, whether that means technically or performance-wise is still to be decided. I want to try – as much as I can – to work on the quad loop again."
The quad loop lingers as a jump that he'd like to have in his arsenal, even as it's continued to trouble him on practice ice. He last landed it successfully in competition in the fall of 2017, at both the U.S. International Figure Skating Classic and the Japan Open.
While disappointed that Worlds were canceled last month, Chen understood and agreed with the decision from organizers to do so for the health and safety of the public. He said he still looks back at his year with satisfaction.
"I'm pretty happy with the season I had. I was able to go to all the Grand Prixes, figure out my schedule, make it work with school and do well on the ice," he said, specifically calling the Grand Prix Final where he faced off against (and defeated) Hanyu as "a really cool experience."
"I was glad I was able to put down the programs that I did at the Final, which I think are the kind of programs I wanted to put out there at Worlds, if we would have gone. It was nice to know in my head that I did that and to feel like, 'I accomplished something with these programs.'"
While this season is now in the past, so too is PyeongChang, where Chen entered as one of the favorites behind Hanyu, the reigning Olympic champ. But the then-18-year-old froze under the weight of expectation, unable to shake off a tough short program in the team event, nearly repeating it in the men's singles event.
He'd win the free skate, however, and bounce from 17th to fifth. It was the biggest learning month of his life, he said.
"I got put into a situation where I freaked out and I didn't know how to handle it," he said candidly. "I had to figure it out myself. The Olympics are crazy; they're so cool. I didn't appreciate that while I was there. Instead, it was like, 'This is the most terrifying experience of my life. I hate this, I hate this.' Now that I'm able to take a step back from that, I can tell myself, 'Man the Olympics are really cool, you should have enjoyed them more.'"
That's the plan should he land on the Beijing team in 2022.
"My number one goal (for Beijing) is going to be to enjoy it more, embrace the experience, because it's an incredible one," he said. "And that's purely from the mental side of things. Training wise, I know there are things I could have done better. I stressed myself out. I went super hard at training. Sometimes you just need to take a step back, take a deep breath and start again."
In the Horizon: Another Olympics
There was a starting again, of sorts, in 2016, when Chen had placed third at the U.S. Championships but then injured his hip in his exhibition program the following day, missing Worlds that year and sitting out for some five months that spring/early summer.
Chen, ever the one to pay attention to the details, connected his time off the ice then to what he's going through right now, having not skated in over a month, adhering to stay-at-home orders, and not sure when he'd return to the ice again.
"Four years ago, I was off for five months and I was still able to come back and add new jumps to my repertoire," he said. "I'm not super concerned with time off of the ice (presently) as long as I'm productive in other ways. That was two years away from the Olympics, too."
Plans to start knocking heads with coach Rafael Arutunian and choreographers are being made, but Chen said he has not chosen his programs for the 2020-21 season, though he would like to shake things up with the breadth and feel of what he's putting onto the ice artistically compared to his "La Boheme" and
Rocket Man programs from this last year.
"I want to divert from what I've been doing, because every year I try to bring something a little bit different," he said. "At least for myself, I like to try and experience something new. I want to stretch my artistic capability."
Chen, whose sister Janice is a scientist who has been working with her lab on COVID-19 solutions via CRISPR products, is clear that he's not skating on ice right now. He's staying home. There, it's body weight workouts, elastic bands, lots of core and glute work, walks outside and – he says – he might pull out his roller skates at some point, too. He's got his guitar along with him from Yale, as well.
Finding New Layers
And while the deeper love for the sport was hinted through his YouTube consumption of programs past, Chen also revealed this: He's now taking on a bit of coaching, having completed his CERs (Continuing Education Requirements) via the Professional Skaters Association. He scored a 100% on his module exam.
"As soon as Worlds was canceled I was like, 'I'm going to sign up and be a coach,'" Chen shared. "There are some kids at the rink I train at in the Connecticut, so I have been working with some of them. I'm certified now, so I can coach. After this blows over, I will try to coach a little bit more, too. I find it pretty interesting. I want to do it more the next couple of seasons. It allows me to be more mentally engaged. I think about skating more as a coach than I do as a skater."
This pandemic has made us all step back and examine things in different ways,
Nathan Chen included.
Now a World champ who falls down YouTube skating rabbit holes and has his coaching certification, Chen is as realistic as ever about how he's gotten to where he is – and where he'd like to go and be in the next two years.
There is no great secret to his success, he said.
"Having the dream and the desire to spend time on the ice and be the best I can be, that's number one," he said. "If you don't have the love, it's going to be really difficult to do the work every day. That ties in with my family – their influence – because I was supported extremely well. My mom put me in gymnastics and hockey and ballet. I think she thought I was going to enjoy it all, but it also helped my skating, as well. I learned coordination through sport and access to sport.
"Having that (base) is big, and now I have Rafael, my sports med team, sports science team. There is so much support behind me; they know what I'm doing every day. But having that desire, that is the biggest factor."
