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Rewind four years and Karen Chen found herself in a similar position she is in today, bound for the ISU World Figure Skating Championships the year preceding the Olympic Winter Games.
"Making the World Team was a dream come true and I'm really determined to make it a special experience," Chen said. "My first one was really great. I had such an amazing time and I skated pretty well. I'm hoping Bradie (Tennell) and I can recreate that same magic."
Chen was in her hotel room at the 2021 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Las Vegas when she received the news she had been selected for the World Team via text and called her parents right away to share her excitement. Chen had earned the bronze medal at the event with a near perfect free skate to "Butterfly Lover Concerto" by Takako Nishizaki, which she explains is the "Chinese version of Romeo and Juliet."
Now looking forward to Worlds, Chen is working on consistency and likely won't add any technical elements to her routines. She is, however, working on her triple Axel daily. If she lands it prior to Worlds, she could choose to debut it at the competition. She hasn't put much thought into working on acquiring quadruple jumps, but if she were to train them, she'd probably want to start with the quad loop and quad Lutz.
"Leading up to Nationals, I had to kind of tone it down a little because I didn't want to risk injuring myself," she said. "I know working on the overall program consistency is more important than working on the jump...I'm hoping that Worlds is my opportunity to peak.
Her ultimate goal at Worlds is to deliver two solid performances when it counts, which she proves to herself she is capable of in practice.
"I get my confidence from my training," she said. "These weeks leading up to Worlds is really important for me to hone in on my skills and work on my mental strength and build the repetition, so when I do get there and if I have any doubts, I can tell myself, 'Okay, Karen, you've trained this however many times and you've done it so many times in practice, it'll be there for you.'"
Road To The Olympics
Placements in each discipline at the Worlds leading up to an Olympic season determine how many competitors can represent each country the following year, with three being the maximum. In order to earn those coveted three spots, the sum of the country's top two placements cannot exceed 13.
In 2017, ahead of PyeongChang, the then-U.S. champion Chen finished fourth at Worlds, with her teammate Ashley Wagner in seventh. Because their placements added up to only 11, the U.S. earned three spots for the Olympic team.
Reaping the benefits of that lucrative third spot, Chen got the bronze medal at the 2018 U.S. Figure Skating Championships® in San Jose, California, and was named to the U.S. Olympic Figure Skating Team alongside Tennell and Mirai Nagasu. This year, the U.S. can send only two ladies to Worlds in Stockholm, so Chen and Tennell will both need to work to regain the third Olympic spot.
"I would be lying if I said there is not pressure," Chen said. "There definitely is pressure and I feel it. I'm sure we both feel it, but at this point, we can only focus on the things we can control which is training leading up to Worlds and being in the best possible shape. If we both deliver really solid performances, I know I'm not going to have any regrets."
Chen and Tennell also happen to be training mates at The Broadmoor World Arena in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
"We get to train and push each other every single day. Vincent [Zhou] also trains here, which is really great," she said. "We have three of the World team members and three alternates here, so it's a really great environment to push each other and keep growing."
Brotherly Love
Chen wasn't the only elite figure skater in her family to stand on the podium at the 2021 Toyota U.S. Championships. Her younger brother Jeffrey Chen and his partner Katarina Wolfkostin skated away with gold in the junior ice dance competition.
"I was so proud of them," Chen said of her brother's title, especially given the circumstances he had to overcome.
Soon before he was set to compete, he was diagnosed with an ACL injury which put his U.S. Championships in flux. But, a day or two ahead of the competition, he was given clearance by doctors to compete because he was in minimal pain. Due to the pandemic, the World Junior Championships were canceled, so it is the end of the season for Wolfkostin and Chen.
The siblings never teamed up as an official ice dance partnership, but they have tangoed together just for fun. In fact, Karen passed her pre-gold dances. She believes that learning the patterns and basic edge quality has contributed to her success in free skating.
Follow Chen and the rest of Team USA at the World Championships from March 22-28, 2021, on NBC, NBCSN, and Peacock Premium.
