Nathan Chen

Nathan Chen
Chen at the 2014 US Championships
Personal information
Country represented	United States
Born	(1999-05-05) May 5, 1999 Salt Lake City, Utah
Height	1.65 m (5 ft 5 in)
Coach	Marina Zueva, Rafael Arutyunyan, Oleg Epstein
Former coach	Nadia Kanaeva, Vera Arutyunyan, Evgenia Chernyshova, Stephanie Grosscup, Karel Kovar
Choreographer	Nadia Kanaeva, Marina Zueva
Former choreographer	Nikolai Morozov, Phillip Mills, Stephanie Grosscup, Evgenia Chernyshova
Skating club	Salt Lake Figure Skating
Training locations	Canton, Michigan Lakewood, California
Former training locations	Salt Lake City, Utah Lake Arrowhead, California Artesia, California
Began skating	2002
ISU personal best scores
Combined total	268.91 2016 NHK Trophy
Short program	92.85 2016 Trophée de France
Free skate	180.97 2016 NHK Trophy
Medal record Representing  United States Figure skating: Men's singles Grand Prix 2016 NHK Trophy Men's singles World Junior Championships 2014 Sofia Men's singles Junior Grand Prix Final 2015–16 Barcelona Men's singles 2013–14 Fukuoka Men's singles U.S. Championships 2016 St. Paul Men's singles

Nathan Chen (born May 5, 1999) is an American figure skater. He is the Grand Prix 2016 NHK Trophy silver medalist, 2016 CS Finlandia Trophy champion and 2016 U.S. national bronze medalist. Earlier in his career, he became the 2015 JGP Final champion, 2014 World Junior bronze medalist, and 2014 U.S. junior champion. At the 2016 U.S. Championships, Chen became the first American skater ever to land two quadruple jumps in a short program and also the first American ever to complete four quads in a free skate. He is the only skater in the world capable of landing both the quad lutz and quad flip jumps in competitions. Chen is currently the top U.S. scorer (268.91) in international figure skating competitions.

Personal life

Nathan Chen was born in Salt Lake City, Utah.^[1] He attended West High School (Utah) in Salt Lake City and Rim of the World High School in Lake Arrowhead, California, before enrolling at Connections Academy, an online high school, in August 2013 as a sophomore.^[2] In addition to figure skating, Chen trained in ballet with Ballet West Academy^[3] as well as competing in gymnastics at the state and regional levels for seven years.

Skating career

Early years

Nathan Chen started figure skating at age three and entered his first skating competition in 2003. From 2007 to 2009, Chen 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 won the national novice title at the 2010 U.S. Championships^[4] in Spokane, Washington, and became the youngest novice champion in the history of U.S. Figure Skating at age 10.^[5] Due to his young age, he opted to remain at the novice level for the 2010–11 season and defended his novice title at the 2011 U.S. Championships in Greensboro, North Carolina.^[6][7]

In the 2011–12 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.^[8] Arutyunyan became his main coach in mid-December 2011.^[9] Chen won the junior men's title at the 2012 U.S. Championships in San Jose, California on January 24, 2012.^[10] Making his first international appearance, he won the novice men's event at the 2012 Gardena Spring Trophy in Selva Val Gardena, Italy.^[11][12]

2012–13 season: Junior international debut

In 2012–13, Chen stayed at the junior level nationally, and became age-eligible (13 years old) to compete in the ISU Junior Grand Prix (JGP) series.^[10] His first assignment was JGP Austria in Linz from September 12–16, 2012.^[13] He won the gold medal with the highest score (222.00 points) ever awarded to date in the JGP series.^[14] 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.^[15] He won the junior men's bronze medal at the 2013 U.S. Championships in Omaha, Nebraska, on January 22, 2013.^[16]

2013–14 season: Bronze at Junior Worlds

In 2013–14, Chen started his season by winning gold both at the ISU Junior Grand Prix in Mexico, in September 2013, and at the JGP in Belarus. He qualified for the Junior Grand Prix Final in Fukuoka, Japan, where he won the bronze medal. 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.^[17] His final combination spin in the short program received 4.86 points, the highest among active male skaters in the world.^[18] Chen was awarded the bronze medal at the 2014 World Junior Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria in March 2014.^[19] 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.

2014–15 season

In the 2014-15 season, 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,^[20] winning the senior men's division, and advanced to the 2015 U.S. Championships in Greensboro, NC. He developed a growth-related heel injury one week before the national championships.^[21] He competed scaled-back versions of his short and long programs on pain medications. He placed eighth overall in his senior national championship debut from January 17–25, 2015. After the competition, Chen was named to the U.S. team for the 2015 World Junior Championships.^[22] He finished 4th at the event in Tallinn, Estonia on March 8, 2015.

2015–16 season: Junior Grand Prix Final champion

In the 2015–16 ISU Junior Grand Prix series, Chen won gold in Colorado Springs, Colorado and in Logroño, Spain. In December 2015, he stood atop the podium at the JGP Final in Barcelona.^[23]

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.^[24] On January 24, he became the first American man 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.^[25] 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.^[26] As a result, he withdrew from the 2016 World Junior Championships in Debrecen, Hungary, and the 2016 World Championships in Boston.^[26]

Chen underwent a month of rehabilitation at the U.S. Olympic Training Center (OTC) in Chula Vista, California,^[27] and by May was training off-ice in Colorado Springs, Colorado.^[28] He resumed full-strength on-ice training around July.^[27]

2016–17 season: Senior international debut

In preparation for his international senior debut, Chen started to train the difficult quad lutz and quad flip jumps six months after his hip surgery.^[29] Armed with four different types of quads - quad toe, quad sal, quad flip and quad lutz - 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. His Grand Prix assignments are the 2016 Trophée de France and 2016 NHK Trophy. 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.^[30] At the 2016 NHK Trophy in Sapporo, Chen placed second behind the reigning Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu and thus qualified for the 2016–17 Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final (GPF) to be held in Marseille, France.

Records and achievements

• The first skater to attempt seven quadruple jumps in a competition.
• The first skater to attempt four different quadruple jumps in a competition (4T, 4S, 4Lz and 4F).
• The first skater to attempt five quad jumps in a free skate.
• The first skater to ever land a quad flip-triple toe loop combination in a competition.
• The youngest U.S. male skater (17 years old) to qualify for the Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final.

Programs

Competitive highlights

Medalists of 2015 ISU Junior Grand Prix Final - Nathan Chen (center), Dmitri Aliev and Sota Yamamoto.

GP: Grand Prix; CS: Challenger Series; JGP: Junior Grand Prix

Detailed results

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

Honors

• Recipient of 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, and 2009 Michael Weiss Foundation Scholarship^[59]
• Recipient of 2012 Ron and Gayle Hershberger Award^[60]
• Recipient of 2011 Athlete Alumni Ambassador Award^[61]
• Recipient of 2011, 2010 Cecilia Colledge Memorial Fund award^[62]
• Recipient of 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, and 2008 U.S. Figure Skating Memorial Fund^[63]
• Member of the 2016-17, 2015–16, 2014–15, 2013–14, 2012–13, 2011–12, 2010-11 U.S. Figure Skating Team Envelope^[64]
• Featured as ABC World News' "Person of the Week" on February 19, 2010^[65]
• Performed in the WiWa Ice Shows in Hangzhou, China, May 1–5, 2010^[66]
• Skated in the annual Sun Valley Summer Ice Shows in Sun Valley, Idaho since 2010^[67][68]
• Performed as a guest skater at Skate Asia 2010 in Hangzhou, China, Skate Asia 2011 in Bangkok, Thailand,^[69] Skate Asia 2012 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia ^[70] and Skate Asia 2013 in Bangkok, Thailand

References

External links

• Official website
• Old official website
• Nathan Chen at Ice Network (subsidiary of U.S. Figure Skating)
• Nathan Chen at the International Skating Union