Nathan Chen | Page 162 | Golden Skate

Nathan Chen

@skfan a few thought after read your post:
I do think Nathan needs to take ownership and leadership in his figure skating (great champions, Yuna, V/M etc. all took the leadership and ownership of their skating towards the later half of their career). but that means he has to have absolute passion about figure skating wherever that may be.

as for Nathan's future healthy. His enormous interests in medicine is also induced by his personal experience dealing with injuries. I do believe Nathan already has been very diligent in terms of training smarter. However, Nathan's mom and Nathan all said they will take figure skating day by day, which means they are aware that figure skating may not be sustainable considering how many quad Nathan has to train to win. This really hurt me..

As for sponsorships and DWTS etc. I agree with many of you here, he will have better deal/sponsorship if he has better results in figure skating in the future, his career is indeed very young, and figure skating for a man can be a relatively longer career. The sacrifice in sponsorship money now so that he can focus on his figure skating and other important pursuit is a trade-off that will be worthwhile in the big picture.

Also, Nathan is explorative.:yes:

as for sun valley full video, I do not have.:(

I also hope Nathan have learn a great deal from this OG experience, his OG season mismanagement that leads to subpar OG result perhaps will scar me forever as a fan. I'm sorry, but I am a fan.
 
Nathan said he's still continuing to work with Bridgestone, and sponsors will probably continue to work with him if he indicates a willingness to continue skating thru 2022, which he has so far. He's still the best and most promising US singles skater and that counts for something. And he's also earned quite a lot from prize money and shows. Maybe someone else can calculate how much he's made in prize money as a senior. It's not insignificant.
 
Sasha'sSpins said:
I DO agree that Nathan (as well as Mirai, and other athletes who are still competing) have a lot on their plates. That being said, most U.S. figure skaters aren't baseball or football Pros or Michael Phelps. The 1990's are over. The days of professional figure skating opportunities to pull in big money are long gone. Nathan, Adam, Mirai, and the Shibs have to strike while it's hot IF making big money is a goal for each of them respectively. I certainly wouldn't pass up the chance to make good money on DWTS as well as expanding my fan base into the bargain AND possibly pulling in even more sponsors. It's a tough call. Above all I want Nathan to stay healthy, at the top of his game and win Olympic gold one day and some World titles would be nice too! .
Click to expand...

I hope I quoted a big enough chunk to show I recognize and appreciate Sasha'sSpins's concern for Nathan's well-being & support for his skating goals. But this is the mention of 'pulling in even more sponsors,' oatmella, that I'm replying to in my post. I am too lazy to figure out how to multi-quote.

In fact I also want to see him dance. Sometimes I wonder if I may even prefer watching him dance to watching him skate. Because his sense of movement and dance and musicality are all divine. But I cannot say, much as I love him, that his skating skills have reached those heights yet, although they are so much better than a couple of years ago. Well, actually not his dance either. I have quibbled about *posture*, leg line, turn out, flexion of ankle when he should be pointing his toes, not to mention what has happened to his camel spin since hip surgery. See, you have been spared all this while I was on my sabbatical from posting :laugh:

Thank you yyyskate for letting me know you did check and don't have those vids to re-up.

Thank you sheetz for your always knowledgeable posts, your information re: sponsors. Also, sheetz, may I ask why you wonder if he's finished with Lori? Is there some press to this effect?

I ask because I think I would like him to be adopted as a long term project by either Lori or Tom Dickson. As long as these choreographers understand he's also going to get choreography for his other program (whether that be SP, LP or gala) from somebody else--since I also want him to have some breadth in education, even if my favorite program by Nathan was actually choreographed by Nadia Kanaeva. I'll always be indebted to Nadia for the gorgeous music cuts for both junior and senior version of the Chopin program, the choreography for middle section of that program, especially.

Oh, and does anyone know when Vera Wang's reign of terror will end? Not only to free the curls, although that's a key consideration, but because... if he didn't want to cut his hair but he was pushed into it, I need some definite visible sign that he has taken the first step to taking control of his image, his career, his life, so I can quit worrying that Beijing will be even worse, assuming he even makes the Oly 2022 team. And I also dislike her eyesore costumes--with all due respect to all of you who can appreciate them (I envy you, wish I could feel that way).

While I'm signed in I should also ask if anybody can suggest music you'd like Nathan to skate to in the future, for SP, LP, gala? It would be nice to imagine some programs in my head, and it would be valuable education for me as well. Thank you all.
 
sheetz said:
Nathan said he's still continuing to work with Bridgestone, and sponsors will probably continue to work with him if he indicates a willingness to continue skating thru 2022, which he has so far. He's still the best and most promising US singles skater and that counts for something. And he's also earned quite a lot from prize money and shows. Maybe someone else can calculate how much he's made in prize money as a senior. It's not insignificant.
Click to expand...

2016/7 should be 61.000 (excluding senior B, Nationals and WTT which I don't know exactly) + shows (SOI + DOI)
2017/8 should still be 61.000 (excluding senior B, Nationals and Japan Open)

http://soyouwanttowatchfs.tumblr.co...-i-have-always-wondered-how-much-money-figure
 
lappo said:
@skfan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7-vGvBP7gg (perfect for a SP and cool stuff!). I'm sure I will come with plenty of other suggestions and I hope some of his family is a lurker here :biggrin:
Click to expand...

lappo, I... do not love it on first listen. In fact I listened to it days ago, while I was lurking. But I will listen again later, hopefully with an open mind, and I appreciate your expanding my musical horizons :)

Thank you for the prize money links. According to this, you're saying his prize money total (not including shows and WTT, etc) is 61k?

That's not reassuring, because Patrick said (somewhere) that it costs 150k per year to train. No wonder skaters need sponsors to make ends meet. From what I recall, the USFSA envelope money is no where near 90k--more like 2k?

I'm not privy to the financial details of his sponsorship deals. But it's been bugging me... ever since I made the mistake of reading that Bonnie Ford ESPN article where I found out he didn't want to cut his hair but was essentially forced to... I just feel terrible for him, and I desperately do not want him to do things that are detrimental to his long term goals, health and happiness out of that well known Asian sense of gratitude/indebtedness/obligation to his family. I just have this suspicion that his mom's being a Kwan fan is a large part of why he was saddled with those horrid Vera Wang costumes, including the reverse skunk-on-ice US Nationals SP costume (G&G rip off), the Evan Lysacek rip off costume with hideous zipper, the SP Oly costume that looks like a piebald cow (missing one arm, on top of it all), and... well, I should stop there before I get flamed, LOL
 
@skfan many great points from your posts, especially Nathan been adopted by certain renowned choreographer as a long term project part. I feel many fans on this boards like Tom Dickson, after I listened his TSL lady recap, I am also very fond of him, I heard he has specific classes to improve SS to serve his choreo better.

regarding your quibble of Nathan's weakness, all his true fans on this board know his weakness pretty well, but we are his fans:biggrin: forgave if we did not point it out as often as needed.

As for music suggestion.
I just wanna Nathan to do a super lyrical, artsy, airy, ice dancer P/C type of program (maybe for gala), just to scare everyone specially his haters.:biggrin: And I know he can pull it off:yes: Like that is how do you a Chopin number:biggrin:
 
skfan said:
lappo, I... do not love it on first listen. In fact I listened to it days ago, while I was lurking. But I will listen again later, hopefully with an open mind, and I appreciate your expanding my musical horizons :)

Thank you for the prize money links. According to this, you're saying his prize money total (not including shows and WTT, etc) is 61k?

That's not reassuring, because Patrick said (somewhere) that it costs 150k per year to train. No wonder skaters need sponsors to make ends meet. From what I recall, the USFSA envelope money is no where near 90k--more like 2k?

I'm not privy to the financial details of his sponsorship deals. But it's been bugging me... ever since I made the mistake of reading that Bonnie Ford ESPN article where I found out he didn't want to cut his hair but was essentially forced to... I just feel terrible for him, and I desperately do not want him to do things that are detrimental to his long term goals, health and happiness out of that well known Asian sense of gratitude/indebtedness/obligation to his family. I just have this suspicion that his mom's being a Kwan fan is a large part of why he was saddled with those horrid Vera Wang costumes, including the reverse skunk-on-ice US Nationals SP costume (G&G rip off), the Evan Lysacek rip off costume with hideous zipper, the SP Oly costume that looks like a piebald cow (missing one arm, on top of it all), and... well, I should stop there before I get flamed, LOL
Click to expand...


Don't worry about that, musical taste are different and the main reason I would like it would be the grand opening with the quad on music. Also, I would love him to stay as far away as possible from warhorses and the same ol' stuff we are getting every year. As far as his finances are concerned, I think the only thing we can calculate is the money prize for official competitions as the data are all available..we don't know anything else about shows and sponsors.
Anyway, it's always interesting to notice how much the perception of richness can vary from country to country...in mine, that amount of money is more than I earned in the last three years and the smallest of his prize could suffice to study in the best university of the country (which this year beat Harvard, Cambridge and Oxford in my own field of research). And yes, competitive FS is not affordable at all!

Also, I'm with you on expanding my musical horizon, I started watching FS as a kid with my grandmother because she was a great fan of the sport and of opera so feel free to share as well (as anyone else!).
 
"his mom's being a Kwan fan is a large part of why he was saddled with those horrid Vera Wang costumes, including the reverse skunk-on-ice US Nationals SP costume (G&G rip off), the Evan Lysacek rip off costume with hideous zipper, the SP Oly costume that looks like a piebald cow (missing one arm, on top of it all), and... well, I should stop there before I get flamed, LOL"
:laugh2::rofl::bow:
 
Sorry for opening that can of worms.

oatmella, I just didn't want the skategods to take umbrage at my arrogance, assuming things. I pray, I hope he will be there. Injury is always a specter, especially for a skater who prefers to fix jumps not by analyzing them and watching videos but by leaping into yet another jump. Hopefully now that it's officially stated judges will be judging practice, he will be swayed to the quality instead of quantity argument Raf has been pressing on him.

And having another strong US guy means less pressure on *solely* his shoulders, on the bright side. The less bright side is the risk of PCS dumpage. I really prefer not to go into all my fears about what's going to happen in the future, but if USFSA is true to form at least 1 guy out of 3 will be their preferred 'best arteeste'. Right now (and for the foreseeable future) that looks to be Jason.

I think for Nathan Nike is ideal because promoting Nike is almost like breathing for him-- effortless. :laugh:
 
oatmella said:
As for sponsors, I don’t think Nathan was in a position to turn down sponsors prior to OG. It’s not like he took any offer that came his way - his sponsors are all big name companies. I think Nike is honestly a dream come true for him - the prestige of being a Nike athlete (like some of his basketball idols) and all those free sneakers (!)
Click to expand...

In fact Yuki did say they had to turn down sponsors because they got too many offers. So I assume they only chose the best ones.
 
personally, I do not wanna associate Nathan with Mao too much, although I know many Nathan's Japanese fans kinda like the idea.

1, I don't think Nathan's skating is even remotely similar to Mao, he has textbook lutz and flip technique and his musicality and sense of dance in figure skating is innate, free with abandonment (and he can do hip-hop justice) which is quite different from Mao's. The only similarity that may exist is that Nathan studied ballet for 6 years professionally for real, and Mao likes to skate to balletic music?
2, I wanna Nathan to have that Olympic Gold medal in the future. so I do not wanna associate him with any skater who seems have bad luck with that elusive OGM that including Mao Asada and sorry Michelle Kwan.

Okay, I said this out loud in this board finally.:biggrin:
 
@skfan
I am a new fan, I only started to seriously stan Nathan this season (I do followed him before, not as intense as rn, literally he is my fav skater rn), one reason is his free skate, the most important reason is that, I suddenly realized he is sooooooo good looking and hot.:biggrin::biggrin:

as for possible Nathan's rivals inside US leading to 2022, I think Vincent will be the one, which is actually good for all the reasons you mentioned.
Jason I am not sure. rule change may benefit him but he is not getting younger and he somehow still needs a quad.
US juniors are coming up as well, they can do a quad or two and they are artistically not bad as well so may threaten Jason's place, still a loooog way to reach Nathan's status inside of US tho.
 
oatmella said:
Yeah I don’t see Nathan’s skating at all similar to Mao’s - I only meant homage in jest because he said he admired her skating and the homage to John Curry (who he also admires) was mentioned. Any ideas for Mozart if that’s Nathan’s favorite classical composer?
Would be cool to see Nathan doing hip-hop - like Alex Wong who had that incredible hip-hop routine with Twitch. Didn’t Alex work with Nathan before?
Click to expand...
@oatmella Nathan admire lots of skaters, he even said Yuzuru is one of his many skating idols. Since Japanese media specifically asked his opinion about Mao Asada, so he said she is a beautiful skater.
yes Alex worked with Nathan in last summer. I love them both. Nathan actually already incorporated some hip-hop moves in his Nemesis stsq and his self choreographed "stole the show" ex and ofc his MJ number and "no good" ex.
yes Mozart is Nathan's fav classical composer, Nathan's mom said so.
 
skfan said:
Thank you sheetz for your always knowledgeable posts, your information re: sponsors. Also, sheetz, may I ask why you wonder if he's finished with Lori? Is there some press to this effect?
Click to expand...
Basically because he's never gone back to the same outside choreographer twice. He's worked with Mills, Morozov, Zueva, Bourne, Nichol, Richaud, and even Adam Rippon. And so far the only one he's gone back to is Shae. I could easily see him continuing to work with her more in the future.
While I'm signed in I should also ask if anybody can suggest music you'd like Nathan to skate to in the future, for SP, LP, gala? It would be nice to imagine some programs in my head, and it would be valuable education for me as well. Thank you all.
Click to expand...

A few songs I think would suit him:
Firedance, Bill Whelan
The Feeling Begins, Peter Gabriel
Stairway to Heaven, Led Zepplin

For galas he should continue to choose whatever modern, edgy music he likes.
 
yyyskate said:
personally, I do not wanna associate Nathan with Mao too much, although I know many Nathan's Japanese fans kinda like the idea.

1, I don't think Nathan's skating is even remotely similar to Mao, he has textbook lutz and flip technique and his musicality and sense of dance in figure skating is innate, free with abandonment (and he can do hip-hop justice) which is quite different from Mao's. The only similarity that may exist is that Nathan studied ballet for 6 years professionally for real, and Mao likes to skate to balletic music?
2, I wanna Nathan to have that Olympic Gold medal in the future. so I do not wanna associate him with any skater who seems have bad luck with that elusive OGM that including Mao Asada and sorry Michelle Kwan.

Okay, I said this out loud in this board finally.:biggrin:
Click to expand...
100% agree with you.
 
yyyskate

<<figure skating for a man can be a relatively longer career.>>

pre quad craze, yes, but only because the ladies whose technique won't survive puberty will be weeded out when they get hips. but in this era, I don't think men will have longer career than ladies.



<<I do think Nathan needs to take ownership and leadership in his figure skating (great champions, Yuna, V/M etc. all took the leadership and ownership of their skating towards the later half of their career). but that means he has to have absolute passion about figure skating wherever that may be. >>



he has the passion, no doubt. But he submitted to *someone's* will when it came to Vera and his hair and goodness knows what else! :(

Oh I know he's a strong person, but that Asian sense of obligation and guilt has driven many people into decisions that have regrettable consequences.

also, thank you for the John Curry vid links. I like the Rosenkavalier vid best of the ones I've seen, and I look forward to watching more later.



<<@skfan many great points from your posts, especially Nathan been adopted by certain renowned choreographer as a long term project part. I feel many fans on this boards like Tom Dickson, after I listened his TSL lady recap, I am also very fond of him, I heard he has specific classes to improve SS to serve his choreo better.

regarding your quibble of Nathan's weakness, all his true fans on this board know his weakness pretty well, but we are his fans forgave if we did not point it out as often as needed.

As for music suggestion.
I just wanna Nathan to do a super lyrical, artsy, airy, ice dancer P/C type of program (maybe for gala), just to scare everyone specially his haters. And I know he can pull it off Like that is how do you a Chopin number >>


I would love to see him skate to Chopin again. Chopin can alternate between serenity and turbulence, depending on the piece.

Chopin piano concerto #1 is my favorite of Nathan's program--quiet and lyrical is by far the type of program I enjoy watching. But I think if one of his numbers is 'quiet and introspective,' then his other number has to be one that's bombastic (or grandiose) and requires him to *project* to the rafters. And to do so without making gargoyle-like 'fierce face'. No shortcuts! It's all practice for the 2022 Olys run.

I like Tom Dickson primarily for his work with Angela Wang. I could see huge strides between her Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon program (2011 nationals) and her Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra programs (2011-12 season). I like her Storm short program too, although I could do without the whipping the neck around choreo. I remember Tom saying he took Angela and Alex Johnson to watch... was it the Rite of Spring? or some other event like that. Angela then worked with other choreographers, (this is only my speculation) not because she wasn't learning from him but probably because she saw her career ending in 2018. In the remaining time she probably wanted to work with as many choreographers as she could, both because she could expand her artistic horizons and because she hoped perhaps one of these other choreographers will be the whisperer who finally helps her to control nerves. Again, that's my speculation, based on zero facts. Tom did some nice work for Marin Honda, too, another of my favorites. In fact my favorite Marin programs were done by him, and (based on what I see with my own eyes) he paid attention to her posture, leg line, toe point, how she held her hands.


~~~~~~~~~
lappo

<<Don't worry about that, musical taste are different and the main reason I would like it would be the grand opening with the quad on music. Also, I would love him to stay as far away as possible from warhorses and the same ol' stuff we are getting every year.>>

Thank you for understanding. I look forward to additional music suggestions from you, when you can find the time.


<< As far as his finances are concerned, I think the only thing we can calculate is the money prize for official competitions as the data are all available..we don't know anything else about shows and sponsors.
Anyway, it's always interesting to notice how much the perception of richness can vary from country to country...in mine, that amount of money is more than I earned in the last three years and the smallest of his prize could suffice to study in the best university of the country (which this year beat Harvard, Cambridge and Oxford in my own field of research).>>

Did you mention where you're located? this intrigued me. Forgive me if it sounds like I'm stalking you.


<<Also, I'm with you on expanding my musical horizon, I started watching FS as a kid with my grandmother because she was a great fan of the sport and of opera so feel free to share as well (as anyone else!).>>

There was a very kind poster on this forum who introduced me to new music back in the day, but she passed away. Instead of being guided by one person, now I'm relying on Nathan's many fans to teach me and open my mind to new possibilities :)


~~~~~~~~~
oatmella

<<I’ve always loved Chopin nocturne no.55 op.1 but I’m not sure how that would
work for a figure skating program. But another Chopin program would be amazing. I also really love Rachmaninoff piano concerto 2 but I think a lot have skated to it (including Adam) and it’s one of Mao’s iconic programs. Well if he had a homage to Curry, perhaps an homage to Mao lol. It would be so exciting for me to see him skate to it though and with the quads perfectly timed to the music.>>


Thank you for that suggestion. It's intriguing. May I ask you for additional Chopin suggestions? I'm thinking I'll do some binge Chopin listening and see which grabs me :) It would be a pleasure to re-visit his music, especially the pieces that aren't on the playlists I frequently listen to.
 
@lappo he’s 18 now and will find his footing in life and professional career as he’s older so we’ll see, I’m sure he will woo many ladies if that time comes, Yamaguchi did it and he may be comfortable then who know :) I think Bridgestone will expose him to some car fun he probably enjoys.

On the choreographers, I love Shae’s chill personality and creative spirit, the spark they create is obvious while her husband’s music flair can expand Nathan innate musicality. I hope he continues the music exploration that set him apart from the “usuals”. So excited just thinking about his next season though half year early LoL :D
 
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