Nathan Chen

Nathan Chen
File:Nathan Chen at the 2014 U.S. Figure Skating Championships (photo by Leah Adams).jpg Chen at the 2014 US Championships
Personal information
Country represented	United States
Born	(1999-05-05) May 5, 1999 Salt Lake City, Utah
Height
Coach	Rafael Arutyunyan Nadezda Kanaeva Vera Arutyunyan
Former coach	Evgenia Chernyshova Stephanie Grosscup Karel Kovar
Choreographer	Nadezda Kanaeva Nikolai Morozov
Former choreographer	Phillip Mills Stephanie Grosscup Genia Chernyshova
Skating club	Salt Lake Figure Skating
Training locations	Artesia, California
Former training locations	Salt Lake City, Utah Lake Arrowhead, California
Began skating	2002
ISU personal best scores
Combined total	236.76 2015 JGP United States
Short program	78.59 2015 JGP Final
Free skate	159.63 2015 JGP United States
Medal record Representing United States Figure skating: 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

Nathan Chen (born May 5, 1999) is an American figure skater. He is the 2015 JGP Final champion, the 2014 World Junior bronze medalist and 2014 U.S. Junior champion.

Personal life

Nathan Chen was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. He attended West High School (Utah) in Salt Lake City and Rim of the World High School in Lake Arrowhead, California before enrolling at Capistrano Connections Academy, an online high school, in August 2013 as a sophomore. In addition to figure skating, Chen trained in ballet with Ballet West Academy 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 2007-2009, 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 in Spokane, Washington, and became the youngest novice champion in the history of U.S. Figure Skating at age 10. Due to his young age, Chen opted to remain at the novice level for the 2010–11 season and he defended his novice title at the 2011 U.S. Championships in Greensboro, North Carolina.

For the 2011–12 season, Chen moved up to the junior level in national competitions. He was coached by Genia Chernyshova and also traveled to Lake Arrowhead, California to work with jump specialist Rafael Arutyunyan. Arutyunyan became his main coach in mid-December 2011. Chen won the junior men's title at the 2012 U.S. Championships in San Jose, California on January 24, 2012. Chen's first international competition was the 2012 Gardena Spring Trophy in Selva Val Gardena, Italy, where he won the novice men's event.

2012–13 season

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 series. Chen's first assignment was the 2012 JGP Austria in Linz from September 12–16, 2012. In his JGP debut in Linz, Chen won the gold medal with the highest score of 222.00 ever awarded to date in the ISU Junior Grand Prix series. Chen withdrew from his second event, JGP Croatia, in early October 2012 after the short program due to a lower leg injury and thus did not qualify for the JGP Final. Chen won the junior men's bronze medal at the 2013 U.S. Championships in Omaha, Nebraska, on January 22, 2013.

2013–14 season

In 2013–14, Chen started his season at the ISU Junior Grand Prix in Mexico in September 2013 and won the gold medal. He then won a second JGP gold medal of the season at ISU Junior Grand Prix in Belarus and qualified for the ISU 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. His final combination spin in the short program received 4.86 points, the highest among active male skaters in the world. Chen was awarded the bronze medal at the 2014 World Junior Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria in March 2014. The results of Chen and teammates Jordan Moeller and Shotaro Omori gained three entries for the United States to the 2015 World Junior Championships.

2014–15 season

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

2015–16 season

Chen won gold at both his assignments on the 2015–16 ISU Junior Grand Prix in Colorado Springs, Colorado and Logroño, Spain. He then went on to win the gold medal at the 2015–16 Junior Grand Prix Final.

Programs

Season	Short program	Free skating	Exhibition
2015–2016	Smile (based on Modern Times theme) performed by Michael Jackson Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson choreo. by Nadezda Kanaeva	Symphony No. 3 avec Orgue by Camille Saint-Saëns choreo. by Nikolai Morozov	Dream On by Aerosmith choreo. by Nathan Chen
2014–2015	Smile (based on Modern Times theme) performed by Michael Jackson Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson choreo. by Nadezda Kanaeva	Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor by Frederic Chopin choreo. by Nadezda Kanaeva	Best Day of My Life by American Authors performed by Corey Gray choreo. by Adam Rippon
2013–2014	Summer Winter (from The Four Seasons) by Antonio Vivaldi choreo. by Nadezda Kanaeva	Chattanooga Choo Choo by Glenn Miller Summertime (from Porgy and Bess) by George Gershwin choreo. by Nadezda Kanaeva	Home by Phillip Phillips choreo. by Phillip Mills
2012–2013	Praeludium and Allegro by Fritz Kreisler choreo. by Nadezda Kanaeva, Rafael Arutyunyan	The Three Musketeers by ? choreo. by Stephanie Grosscup
2011–2012	WALL•E by Thomas Newman choreo. by Stephanie Grosscup	The Godfather by Nino Rota choreo. by Genia Chernyshova	Stereo Hearts by Gym Class Heroes choreo. by Genia Chernyshova
2010–2011	Rawhide choreo. by Genia Chernyshova	Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 by Franz Liszt choreo. by Genia Chernyshova	Rawhide choreo. by Genia Chernyshova
2009–2010	Kung Fu Panda by Hans Zimmer choreo. by Stephanie Grosscup	Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev choreo. by Genia Chernyshova	Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev choreo. by Genia Chernyshova

Competitive highlights

File:Medalists of 2015 JGPF - Nathan Chen, Dmitri Aliev, Sato Yamamoto (photo by Susan D. Russell).jpg

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

International
Event	2009–10	2010–11	2011–12	2012–13	2013–14	2014–15	2015–16
Junior Worlds					3rd	4th
JGP Final					3rd		1st
JGP Austria				1st
JGP Belarus					1st
JGP Croatia				WD		2nd
JGP Mexico					1st
JGP Spain							1st
JGP USA							1st
Gardena			1st N.
National
U.S. Champ.	1st N.	1st N.	1st J.	3rd. J.	1st J.	8th
Levels: N. = Novice; J. = Junior JGP = Junior Grand Prix, TBD = Assigned; WD = Withdrew

Detailed results

(Small medals for short and free programs awarded only at ISU Championships – Worlds, Four Continents, and Junior Worlds.)

2015–16 season
Date	Event	Level	SP	FS	Total	Ref
Dec. 9-Dec. 13, 2015	2015 JGP Final	Junior	1 78.59	1 146.45	1 225.04
Sept. 30-Oct. 3, 2015	JGP Spain 2015	Junior	1 77.94	2 158.43	1 236.37
Sept. 2-5, 2015	JGP United States 2015	Junior	1 77.13	1 159.63	1 236.76
2014–15 season
Date	Event	Level	SP	FS	Total	Ref
Mar. 2-8, 2015	2015 World Junior Championships	Junior	9 69.87	4 143.98	4 213.85
Jan. 17-25, 2015	2015 U.S. Championships	Senior	8 76.20	8 154.79	8 230.99
Oct. 9–10, 2014	JGP Croatia 2014	Junior	2 72.57	2 135.59	2 208.16
2013–14 season
Date	Event	Level	SP	FS	Total	Ref
Mar. 10-16, 2014	2014 World Junior Championships	Junior	6 69.65	3 142.38	3 212.03
Jan. 5-12, 2014	2014 U.S. Championships	Junior	1 79.61	1 144.32	1 223.93
Dec. 5-8, 2013	2013 JGP Final	Junior	3 71.52	3 143.09	3 214.61
Sept. 25-28, 2013	JGP Belarus 2013	Junior	1 69.96	1 141.15	1 211.11
Sept. 4-8, 2013	JGP Mexico 2013	Junior	1 74.22	1 144.40	1 218.62
2012–13 season
Date	Event	Level	SP	FS	Total	Ref
Jan. 19–27, 2013	2013 U.S Championships	Junior	3 63.60	4 117.71	3 181.31
Sept. 13–14, 2012	JGP Austria 2012	Junior	1 75.15	1 146.85	1 222.00
2011–12 season
Date	Event	Level	SP	FS	Total	Ref
Apr. 12–15, 2012	2012 Gardena Spring Trophy	Novice	2 44.03	1 85.42	1 129.45
Jan. 22–29, 2012	2012 U.S. Championships	Junior	2 63.15	1 130.75	1 193.90
2010–11 season
Date	Event	Level	SP	FS	Total	Ref
Jan. 22–30, 2011	2011 U.S. Championships	Novice	1 52.47	1 110.93	1 163.40
2009–10 season
Date	Event	Level	SP	FS	Total	Ref
Jan. 14–24, 2010	2010 U.S. Championships	Novice	1 51.24	3 85.80	1 137.04

Honors

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

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

• Capistrano Connections Academy
• Ballet West Academy
• INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION SEASON ASSIGNMENTS/RESULTS
• rinkresults.com

• Earlier versions: 2011 to 2013 at the Wayback Machine

• Michael Weiss Foundation Scholarship winners!
• U.S. Figure Skating Memorial Fund
• U.S. Figure Skating Team Envelope
• Susan D. Russell, Wiwa Rocks in China, International Figure Skating Magazine, July 2010
• Stars sparkle at Sun Valley Ice Shows, The Idaho Mountain Express, June 30, 2010
• Sun Valley On Ice
• Skate Asia 2012