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The Olympics are maybe probably the most pressure-packed competitors in all of sports activities. Athletes practice for 4 years main as much as the Video games, then have one shot at glory.
For determine skaters, 4 years of coaching comes right down to 4 minutes alone on the ice, on a worldwide stage, with thousands and thousands watching all over the world.
“Entering into for the primary time, it’s actually daunting,” Salt Lake Metropolis native Nathan Chen stated.
In his first Olympics, the then-18-year-old Chen was among the many favorites to medal. In his particular person brief program on the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, with all the stress on him, he fell and missed a few jumps, putting seventeenth.
What occurred in his subsequent occasion, the free skate, would set the tone for the following 4 years of his profession.
Chen turned in a outstanding efficiency on the free skate, ending with an Olympic-record rating of 215.08.
He cleanly landed 5 quadruple jumps, changing into the primary skater in Olympic historical past to take action. He vaulted from seventeenth place to fifth with the efficiency.
In between the brief program and the free skate, Chen re-examined his mindset.
As a substitute of placing stress on himself to take house gold, he as a substitute targeted on the technical points of the upcoming skate. He stored his thoughts clear, trusted his coaching and tried to simply keep within the second.
After the Olympics, he additionally labored with a sports activities psychologist, in accordance with Olympics.com.
The Michael Jordan of determine skating
Since that record-setting free skate in 2018, Chen — along with his new mindset — has been on prime of the determine skating world.
In his 18 occasions because the Pyeongchang Video games, Chen has gained 17 of them. He continues to enhance his skating, occasion after occasion, pushing himself — and the game — to new heights.
In maybe the crowning second in his profession to date, Chen set two world data on the 2019–20 Grand Prix of Determine Skating Closing.
His free skate rating of 224.92 beat the earlier file, set by Yuzuru Hanyu, by practically 12 factors. His mixed rating on the remaining — totaling collectively the free skate and the brief program — was 335.30. Chen additionally owns the second-highest mixed rating, 323.42, set on the 2019 World Determine Skating Championships.
In all, Chen has gained three world championships because the 2018 Olympics.
In January, he capped off his sixth consecutive title on the U.S. Determine Skating Championships by breaking the brief program file on the occasion with a rating of 114.13 in his final competitors earlier than the 2022 Beijing Video games. Successful the U.S. Determine Skating Championship secured his place on the Olympic workforce.
Chen stated he tries to skate to music that he loves. On the 2022 U.S. Determine Skating Championships, he skated to the opera “La Bohème” within the brief program and to Elton John’s “Rocket Man” within the free skate.
Within the brief program, he hit a quad flip and a quad lutz triple toe in the course of the efficiency, whereas mixing in his distinctive motion and elegance.
Throughout Chen’s record-breaking brief program, NBC determine skating analyst Johnny Weir referred to as Chen the Michael Jordan of determine skating.
And very like MJ pushed the sport of basketball to a different degree, Chen is pushing determine skating’s limits.
“He retains pushing the technical degree at this level in his profession,” NBC commentator Tara Lipinski stated. “He’s been pushing males’s skating into the unknown. It’s a mixture of innovation and athleticism. Ten years in the past, this sort of skating could be a fever dream. You wouldn’t even think about that this might occur.”
Impressed by the 2002 Olympic flame
Chen was born in Salt Lake Metropolis in 1999 to Chinese language immigrant dad and mom Zhidong Chen and Hetty Wang.
In his Olympic bio, Chen remembers watching determine skating on TV in the course of the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympics. He began skating that 12 months, at 3 years previous.
Rising up in Utah, Chen had reminders of the Olympics all over the place he went.
“I feel having the ability to be in an Olympic city and see Olympic memorabilia all over the place simply actually provides you inspiration and motivation to go to the rink daily,” he stated. “It provides you a contemporary perspective on how cool it's to have an occasion just like the Olympics.”
When working towards in ice rinks in Utah, Chen would faux that he was within the Olympics.
“Simply having that inspiration, that type of begin of a dream, can actually take folks far.”
He credit the Olympic-level services in Utah, just like the Steiner Ice Rink, for his improvement.
“Utah has actually superior services,” Chen stated. “Had it not been for the 2002 Olympics, had it not been for the event of all these Olympic-level services, it could have been actually tough for me to make it to the place I'm now.”
He additionally credit his dad and mom.
“I’m actually happy with the best way that I’ve been in a position to get to the place I'm,” Chen stated. “After all, that’s resulting from my dad and mom and all the folks that have helped me all through my approach.”
Given the world-class services and Utahns’ ardour for winter sports activities, Chen thinks that extra Olympic determine skaters may emerge from Utah.
“I’m sure that, provided that I used to be in that scenario, there actually can be different athletes that come from Utah,” Chen stated. “I’m wanting ahead to see the way forward for the game develop from Utah.”
Seven years after he acquired his begin in Utah, at simply 10 years previous, Chen shocked the viewers on the U.S. Championships — the place he would later shatter data.
“Keep in mind that identify,” the NBC commentator stated, 12 years in the past.
Getting ready for the 2022 Olympics
As if coaching for 4 years for his subsequent shot on the Olympics wasn’t sufficient, the 22-year-old Chen can be a junior at Yale, majoring in statistics and information science. Sure, whereas breaking data and successful championships, Chen was finding out at one of many nation’s prime universities.
Chen took a break from faculty to organize for the Olympics, however is wanting ahead to returning to Yale in August.
As for his future in skating after the 2022 Video games? That's undecided.
“On this present second, I'm nonetheless having fun with what I’m doing. I’m nonetheless having fun with going to the rink daily and practice and see my coaching mates,” Chen stated.
After successful three world championships, Chen enters the 2022 Video games with much more hype swirling round him than throughout his first journey in 2018.
With a contemporary mindset, extra expertise, and the expertise of the 2018 Video games, Chen is prepared for the Beijing Video games.
“The Olympics are such a unprecedented competitors, actually nothing prefer it, so to have the ability to have one expertise of that already and having the ability to have 4 years in between that to proceed rising is a extremely good thing,” he stated.
Chen is aware of what it’s wish to fail on the largest stage on the earth, with thousands and thousands watching. He’s gone by way of it already. That helps take the stress off for his second time round.
“Though it's a particularly significant occasion, on the finish of the day, whether or not you win, whether or not you lose, you’re going to nonetheless go house and see your similar family and friends, you’re nonetheless going to do the identical actions,” Chen stated.
“One second isn't going to outline the remainder of your life.”
Chen will compete within the males’s brief program on Feb. 7 and can compete within the free skate on Feb. 9.
“I’m simply actually wanting ahead to going again and dealing for that aim, for no matter targets I've for the Video games,” Chen stated.