junior title to an even younger prodigy, Vin- cent Zhou. Arutunian’s words in Omaha would prove


prophetic: “His body could not handle that much; he was going too far,” the coach said. “Maybe we have to go a little slower, but if you want to reach an incredible result, that’s what it takes.”


Te next season, Chen won his second


junior title with another record-setting score, plus a bronze medal at the 2014 World Junior Figure Skating Championships. He landed quadruple toe combinations in the fall of 2015, but an injured heel limited him at the 2015 U.S. Championships, where he placed eighth. By then, the precocious teen was being


talked up as the “next big thing” in U.S. men’s skating. “Nathan has always been such an amazing


jumper to me, because he learns everything ex- actly the way Rafael explains it to us,” Serafini said. “He’s always able to hear it from Rafael, and then put it right into motion.” With his goal the 2018 Olympics, Chen


didn’t have time to waste. Yuzuru Hanyu, four years older, had two quads in his short pro- grams and three in his free skates, and so did Javier Fernandez. Tey also had musicality and flair.


“I remember a few years ago [Fernandez]


was criticized,” Chen said. “People said, ‘He’s a jumper, he doesn’t do anything else.’ Now, he’s bringing everything to the table. Tat’s what I aspire to do.” Tere was friendly competition from his


peers, skaters like Israel’s Daniel Samohin and Canada’s Nam Nguyen regularly posting new tricks on Instagram and Facebook. Chen is as


Clockwise, Nathan Chen rotates a big jump at the 2016 U.S. Championships; Coach Rafael Arutunian congratu- lates Chen after learning his medal-winning scores in Saint Paul; Chen shares the podium with training mate and U.S. champion Adam Rippon; Chen addresses reporters after claiming the bronze medal.


devoted to social media as any teen. “We’re all pushing these quads out, it’s


really cool and I like it a lot,” he said. “At the same time, we’re all friends, we’re good sports- men to each other. We all want to win, obvi- ously, but we enjoy hanging out together at competitions.”


An injury detour Chen’s roller coaster reached an apex last


season, with victories at two JGP events and the JGP Final. At the 2016 U.S. Champion- ships in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in January, he hit two quads in his short program and four in his free skate, both records for a U.S. skat- er, and won the bronze medal behind training partner Adam Rippon and Max Aaron. Hours later, he was named to the U.S. World junior and senior teams. Ten a jump attempt during the Smuck-


er’s Skating Spectacular went awry, and Chen was diagnosed with an avulsion injury. He un- derwent hip surgery within a week, spending a month recuperating at the Olympic Training Center (OTC) in Chula Vista, California, be- fore relocating to the Colorado Springs OTC for rehabilitation. “It took me close to two months to get


my brace off, to be able to walk and do basic household activities,” he said. “Probably anoth- er month later I was in the gym, getting my lifts in, getting stronger. It was probably anoth- er half a month to get back on the ice.” Every few days, Chen would add another


few minutes to his sessions. Four months in, he was stroking normally; a few weeks after that, he began jumping. “I just wanted to get through it,” he said.


“Honestly, I wasn’t thinking about my jumps. I just wanted to get all off my crutches; that was the biggest thing for me. I wanted to be able to just do normal things again.” In late March, U.S. Figure Skating sent


Chen and several other young skaters to the 2016 World Figure Skating Championships in Boston, where Fernandez performed a re- cord-breaking free skate to capture his second World title. Chen’s three U.S. teammates — Rippon, Aaron and Grant Hochstein — placed in the top 10. “It was super motivational,” Chen said. “I


thought I might be like, ‘Oh man, these guys are so good, I don’t know what I’m going to do.’ But honestly, if they can do it, so can I. I want to be at that level someday. I want to do what they are doing.”


Moving past the jumps Chen knows he won’t be World or Olym-


pic champion on jumps alone. Tis summer, he added Marina Zoueva, coach and chore- ographer of Meryl Davis and Charlie White, and Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani, to his team.


“I’ve never really gotten the program com-


ponent [scores] I wanted, so I’m working with [Zoueva] this season,” he said. “We did my


SKATING 25


JAY ADEFF U.S. FIGURE SKATING


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