Opinion: US team counting on Karen Chen to stay close to Russia with her short program
BEIJING – Karen Chen doesn’t need to be spectacular when she skates in the figure skating team competition Sunday morning, she just needs to be steady. But spectacular wouldn’t be bad.
With the United States holding a surprising lead after the first day of the figure skating team competition, Chen will be the first American on the ice Day 2, competing in the women’s short program. Her goal is to stay as close as she possibly can to Russia’s Kamila Valieva in the team short program. Valieva will be expected to win this portion of the competition. How good are the Russians? Their three women are expected to sweep the medals in the individual competition later in the Olympics.
With the United States ahead of Russia, 28-26, if Chen were to finish in the top three, she would ensure that Team USA would still be at least tied with Russia. (First place is worth 10 points, second place 9, and so on.) A second-place finish and the USA would still be ahead going into the men’s long program, the other event Sunday.
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The competition ends Monday with the pairs and women’s long programs and the free dance.
Chen, 22, who is on a leave of absence from Cornell, has been here before. She saved the day for the Americans twice over the past five years at the world championships, basically single-handedly earning the U.S. three women’s spots at the 2018 and 2022 Olympic Games.
At the 2017 world championships in Helsinki, after Ashley Wagner skated a lackluster long program that put the U.S. in jeopardy of losing a spot at the 2018 Olympics, Chen, then 17, landed six triple jumps before falling on her last one to finish fourth and allow three Americans to go to Pyeongchang the following year.
"Karen Chen saved the day and I am absolutely thankful," Wagner said back then. "I did not do the work here and she went out there for her first time at the world championships and put out that performance with the pressure that I left on her plate. That is something that is so beyond admirable and I think that Team USA — and me — are all very lucky today. She saved the day."
Chen, a protégé of Kristi Yamaguchi, admirably took it all in stride.
"I kept thinking, focus on myself and attack the program," she said. "At first it was overwhelming, knowing what I had to do, so I just needed to play some mind games and block everything out and focus on myself and attack the program."
Four years later, it happened again. At the 2021 worlds in Stockholm, Chen’s American teammate Bradie Tennell didn’t skate well, so Chen again had to swoop in to save the American fortunes, and she did just that with another fourth-place finish.
Chen said the other day that she's a fan of the team event: "Figure skating is such an isolated sport, it’s so individualized, so it’s cool to have this team event."
Having others rely on her has worked to her advantage, at least so far. Chen was a 2018 Olympian but was not chosen to skate in that team competition. This time, the Americans think they can't do it without her.