Nathan Chen | Page 334 | Golden Skate

Nathan Chen


“I don’t want to spend all day at a rink outside of what I already do, and I feel like I can contribute way more if I have a college education versus if I don’t,” he said."

No doubt his college education and Yale experience will add more layers to his performance and make him an even more mature and fuller skater. I am so happy that he is looking at it this way too.

When I started to follow Nathan about 2 months ago, I was under the impression that he's just a super talented good looking (important) and hardworking 18 year old who wanted to achieve all. I even doubted if he really loved figure skating given the amount of pain he had to endure growing up and knowing what else he is capable of in his life. Now I just realized that I was really blind not to see how much thought he has always put into his skating career. He choreographed 3 out of 4 of his last beautiful ex programs (although we joked about him being frugal), he experimented on his elements and refined his expression in every single show he performed, he missed his style in junior days while kept pushing the technical boundaries, he expressed that wanted to do more for the sport (other than just to achieve something for himself), and he believed his college education can contribute to his skating. Now I am convinced that he does love skating, perhaps even more than he realized himself. He is just showing his love and passion in his usual low key, introverted way.

I received my World Figure Skating yesterday, the paper and print quality is outstanding:love:...but I don't really know what to do with it because I can't read Japanese lol
 
“I don’t want to spend all day at a rink outside of what I already do, and I feel like I can contribute way more if I have a college education versus if I don’t,” he said."

No doubt his college education and Yale experience will add more layers to his performance and make him an even more mature and fuller skater. I am so happy that he is looking at it this way too.

When I started to follow Nathan about 2 months ago, I was under the impression that he's just a super talented good looking (important) and hardworking 18 year old who wanted to achieve all. I even doubted if he really loved figure skating given the amount of pain he had to endure growing up and knowing what else he is capable of in his life. Now I just realized that I was really blind not to see how much thought he has always put into his skating career. He choreographed 3 out of 4 of his last beautiful ex programs (although we joked about him being frugal), he experimented on his elements and refined his expression in every single show he performed, he missed his style in junior days while kept pushing the technical boundaries, he expressed that wanted to do more for the sport (other than just to achieve something for himself), and he believed his college education can contribute to his skating. Now I am convinced that he does love skating, perhaps even more than he realized himself. He is just showing his love and passion in his usual low key, introverted way.

I received my World Figure Skating yesterday, the paper and print quality is outstanding:love:...but I don't really know what to do with it because I can't read Japanese lol

Nod, Nod and Nod.:agree::yes::yes::yes:
Yeah, our boi high key loves NBA, Nike Shoes and pretty girls and puppies:biggrin:, but deep inside, his true love is figure skating. yup, after a couple of months of stan Nathan, now we all discovered his low-key, introvert way.:yahoo: :biggrin:

EDIT: actually, it is hidden every where. ;)

EDIT: srsly tho, I think Nathan's love towards figure skating is a gradually developing process as he explores this world.
 
Nathan added statistics into his academic interests Now we have pre-med, econ, statistics, Medical engineering, liberal air, perhaps business :biggrin:

I like how this Yale article phrase this
"Chen has risen to prominence in part by mastering the art of the quadruple jump" the ART of quadruple jump:yes:

Also Nathan visited the Champion ice rink out of all other even closer ice rinks, all these indicate to me that he has done thorough research before made the decision.
 
Seems like he's really enjoying Yale. The students seem like they are really enjoying him too :laugh:

A rink 30 minutes away he can use anytime and for free sounds like a dream come true and a better set up than he has now. That center sounds really really nice and lots of amenities along with the rink. Now to work out the coaching issue. But boy's been doing his research about everything so I suspect he'll have that figured out soon too.
 
Art of the quadruple jump - clearly he chose the right college with this great choice of words in the school paper

He isn’t wearing his current denim security blankie in this photo - this is his Levi’s jacket

He chose a smart and semi-formal (for him) look for his first day visiting Yale - navy button down and less baggy jean jacket

I wonder if there’s still the possibility of him training on campus - and maybe he’s mentioning the other rink to throw us off the scent ...

My fav comment from Nathan’s post (I’m assuming this person is jealous her friend got to take a pic with and meet NATHAN): OMG ANNIE WT* IM SO JEALOUS OF YOU WT*** AHHHHHH I LITERALLY CANT ENGLISH
 
It made sense to visit the rink since it's on the way to New Haven from Hartford. There are closer rinks like the one Sarah Hughes mentioned, the Northford Ice Pavilion. Perhaps they would allow Nathan to skate for free as well. It would certainly be great advertising for them.

Derrick Delmore also said in this article that people doubted his sincerity for skating but he was glad to prove them wrong.
 
Champion ice has one olympic ice rink and one NFL ice rink, this is really good for Nathan, I had impression Lakewood does not have olympic ice rink ?(IDK). Vincent's rink in world arena is also one olympic ice rink and one NFL ice rink setting.
also Champion ice has swimming pool so Nathan can do some swimming conveniently for cross-training. maybe we will have some photo of Nate in swimming suit.:hopelessness:
 
No doubt he loves skating, he moved all the way to Cali leaving behind most of his family to fully train to be a skater at age 11 or so. That was his decision. It’s definitely his passion, just that I think Nathan is the kind of person that literally NEEDS to have different things to focus on to be his best. I get the feeling that he’d be the type that would get really bored if he has to focus on only one thing all day everyday, no matter how passionate he is about it. You can see it from his upbringing that he took on a lot of activities at once and excelled in literally all of them. It’s been that way since he was 3, that might just be how he functions best. I think he’s the type that has to fill his day with multiple activities in order to be stimulated but for each of those activities he’s laser focused on only that thing so that he’s productive and then can go on to the next part of his day. So what he said makes sense to the kind of mentality I think he’s always had.

Also I think people (in general, not necessarily here) underestimate how badly he wants to be Olympic Champion and part of that could be because he talks about things so nonchalant that people mistake that to mean he’s not committed because he’s not as outwardly expressive of his passion for skating with the same level of enthusiasm that I think most people are used to from skaters.

It’s obviously not like life or death for him the way it might feel for other skaters & he has so many options but that’s kinda the exact reason why no one should underestimate his love for it. He of all people doesn’t necessarily need it and he does have so many other ways to succeed, so many other routes he could have taken but decided to go all in for skating. I think he wants it as much as anyone else, maybe more but don’t expect him to wax poetry about it or anything lol.

I think a general rule to have with Nathan is that you should deduce things based on his actions, not necessarily his words lol
 
Champion ice has one olympic ice rink and one NFL ice rink, this is really good for Nathan, I had impression Lakewood does not have olympic ice rink ?(IDK). Vincent's rink in world arena is also one olympic ice rink and one NFL ice rink setting.
also Champion ice has swimming pool so Nathan can do some swimming conveniently for cross-training. maybe we will have some photo of Nate in swimming suit.:hopelessness:

NHL not NFL ice rink😊

Nathan will need a car at Yale !

Isn’t Lakewood just one (non sure what size) ice rink - this facility looks more deluxe and maybe the ice better condition for FS

haha modest Nathan might wear a swim shirt anyways
 
No doubt he loves skating, he moved all the way to Cali leaving behind most of his family to fully train to be a skater at age 11 or so. That was his decision. It’s definitely his passion, just that I think Nathan is the kind of person that literally NEEDS to have different things to focus on to be his best. I get the feeling that he’d be the type that would get really bored if he has to focus on only one thing all day everyday, no matter how passionate he is about it. You can see it from his upbringing that he took on a lot of activities at once and excelled in literally all of them. It’s been that way since he was 3, that might just be how he functions best. I think he’s the type that has to fill his day with multiple activities in order to be stimulated but for each of those activities he’s laser focused on only that thing so that he’s productive and then can go on to the next part of his day. So what he said makes sense to the kind of mentality I think he’s always had.

Also I think people (in general, not necessarily here) underestimate how badly he wants to be Olympic Champion and part of that could be because he talks about things so nonchalant that people mistake that to mean he’s not committed because he’s not as outwardly expressive of his passion for skating with the same level of enthusiasm that I think most people are used to from skaters.

It’s obviously not like life or death for him the way it might feel for other skaters & he has so many options but that’s kinda the exact reason why no one should underestimate his love for it. He of all people doesn’t necessarily need it and he does have so many other ways to succeed, so many other routes he could have taken but decided to go all in for skating. I think he wants it as much as anyone else, maybe more but don’t expect him to wax poetry about it or anything lol.

I think a general rule to have with Nathan is that you should deduce things based on his actions, not necessarily his words lol
I agree we shouldn't underestimate his desire to succeed and become an Olympic champion. But for me there's still a subtle difference between a desire to be a champion in figure skating and the pure love for skating itself. I admit in the past while I never questioned his determination to win and succeed, I didn't always feel assured that he truly loved figure skating itself. It was mostly a feeling I got from watching his skating and his approach to skating, but then I don't think it was entirely unfounded. Many people also suspected he was going to retire and go to school had he won the Olympics in PC. I remember in one post-Olympics NBC article Nathan was quoted saying (paraphrasing) that skating had been such a big part of his life and it was something he always excelled at, and it was something he had gotten used to. And it wasn't until recently that he truly felt like he *loved* skating. Needless to say, I was beyond happy when I read that article.
 
couldn't be happier to find new IG story from Nathan when you are on lunch break.

and, skfan, finally Handsome Dan!!!!

He seemed to have really good time these three days, and sorry to read that that west coast for feeling "betrayed" lol

ETA: those who always only stress "pretty girls" while "ignoring" his love/likes for dogs, I seriously doubt you are Nathan fan as "claimed". :biggrin:;)

Can someone in New Haven please loan the kid a dog for cuddling like skfan suggested?
 
@ heyheyhey Like you’ve noted because this dude has shown excellence in many fields outside of the rink, it’s led some to feel skating is one of them, and it may be interpreted differently as he doesn’t speak about it as frequent as others or solely focus on the sport. One of many reasons I became his fan was because he seems to have genuine interest and pursues many things outside of skating, and I do feel he’s able to be at his best when he’s this way, how he finds his balance. He having other social accounts outside of the official one speaks to it. A friend who’s a Hanyu fan recently alluded to this when we chatted about Nathan & college, she’s amazed at how diverse, well-rounded he is and that he’s showing young skaters how to be the best in the sport you love while attaining other goals in life.

Also, the Delmore article sheetz shared was a good read, to some it may be irrelevant as he’s not a “top” athlete, to me, hardware & ranking may be important to fandom but doesn’t define the equal hard work and the difficult scheduling all have to endure when juggling with school and professional sports careers especially during the season, Nathan may had a few readings on athletes as he prepares his own journey.
 
Art of the quadruple jump - clearly he chose the right college with this great choice of words in the school paper

He isn’t wearing his current denim security blankie in this photo - this is his Levi’s jacket

He chose a smart and semi-formal (for him) look for his first day visiting Yale - navy button down and less baggy jean jacket

I wonder if there’s still the possibility of him training on campus - and maybe he’s mentioning the other rink to throw us off the scent ...

My fav comment from Nathan’s post (I’m assuming this person is jealous her friend got to take a pic with and meet NATHAN): OMG ANNIE WT* IM SO JEALOUS OF YOU WT*** AHHHHHH I LITERALLY CANT ENGLISH

My favorite is from Karen asking Nathan to tutor her so she can nail SAT & ACT. In her IG story today, she was asking for test taking strategies and whether to take SAT or ACT.

Karen you are very smart girl yourself, you don't really SAT tutoring from Nathan. He probably just throws you some book.

And it is always to see likes/comments from Romain
 
couldn't be happier to new IG story from Nathan when you are on lunch break.

and, skfan, finally Handsome Dan!!!!

He seemed to have really good time these three days, and sorry to read that that west coast for feeling "betrayed" lol

ETA: those who always only stress "pretty girls" while "ignoring" his love/likes for dogs, I seriously doubt you are Nathan fan. :biggrin:;)

Can someone in New Haven please loan the kid a dog for cuddling like skfan suggested?

Haha yes, I think he needs a dog ASAP! The love is too real 😁
 
He updated his instastory with Dan the bulldog, Dan is probably the only one who is nonchalant with him haha
 
My favorite is from Karen asking Nathan to tutor her so she can nail SAT & ACT. In her IG story today, she was asking for test taking strategies and whether to take SAT or ACT.

Karen you are very smart girl yourself, you don't really SAT tutoring from Nathan. He probably just throws you some book.

And it is always to see likes/comments from Romain
Awww, I wonder who’s gonna replace Romain for Nathan when he moves to Yale? Both for himself and for the fans :biggrin:
 
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