After being uncovered to a whole bunch of skaters with the identical one-path dream, faculty has opened up a plethora of various routes and alternatives, he stated.
“[It] actually helps with skating,” Chen stated. “Heading into 2018, if skating does not go nicely, that is it for me. Skating is the one factor that I’ve, and if it goes nicely, that is what my life was destined to be. And if it does not go nicely, then you already know, it is form of wasted, which clearly, is a reasonably poisonous mentality.”
“I believe with the ability to then understand, you already know, skating is cool, but it surely’s similar to, one a part of my life, there’s much more that I can do, theoretically, sooner or later,” he continued. “Even when skating is not there, there [are] different issues that I can discover ardour for.”
At Yale, Chen found a ardour for numbers — statistics and information science particularly. Numbers aren’t international to Chen as a skater, they’re important to monitoring his jumps and he usually turns to the analysts on his crew to assist have a look at his stylistic applications extra objectively. Math isn’t at all times the key to touchdown jumps, however it could actually assist.
“Typically on the subject of coaching, we simply get very emotional and use our subjective judgment to find out how issues are going,” he stated. “Whereas [if you] have a look again and have a look at the uncooked, precise goal information, you are like, ‘oh, issues are literally wanting pretty good, you already know?’ After which we are able to make alterations based mostly on [that].”
With a number of paths now unfurling earlier than him, Chen faces a choice: “Definitely I will nonetheless keep concerned [in figure skating] in some a way or one other. How concerned? I am not fairly positive but.”
Even when Chen had been prepared to shut this chapter, it’s nonetheless ongoing. Regardless of Group USA’s quite a few medals on the 2022 Video games, they’ve but to obtain a few of them and rejoice their win correctly. After Russian skater Kamila Valieva, 15, examined constructive for a banned substance, the Worldwide Olympic Committee postponed any medal ceremony she had positioned in. She and the Russian Olympic Committee positioned first within the crew occasion, whereas the U.S. place second, which means the medal ceremony has but to occur. Chen and his teammates had been left actually empty handed — after shedding an enchantment agains the IOC to get their medal, Chen informed the New Yorker that he and his teammates hadn’t acquired the bodily medal but.
“All of us deserve a medal ceremony. We need to get that medal and we deserved to get that medal earlier than we left,” stated Chen.
One of many hardest issues for Chen was watching his teammates proceed to compete amid the controversy and have this added anxiousness weighing them down in an already worrying time of their lives and on their our bodies. However nothing’s with out it’s issues. As a fellow athlete, Chen understands the nuances of the scenario and feels the ache that Valieva have to be feeling.