Nathan Chen Fan Thread #2

[sheetz]

Nathan's men's FS report

Ilia Malinin falls, fails to medal in men's free skate

3-time Olympic medalist Nathan Chen reacts to the 'shocking' end to the men's individual competition that saw USA's Ilia Malinin fall from 1st to 8th with a disastrous free skate.

sports.yahoo.com

 

[sheetz]

Nathan spoke to Salt Lake TV in Milan

https://x.com/OlympicChenpion/status/2022718652752236958

Nathan seen in the media area during the Men's FS

Nathan's supporting team JPN on Instagram: "ネイサン、ジャッキーさんと記者席に座り、何やら雑談中😆 アリス姉さんIGSより！ アリス姉さん、ありがとうございます😊 　 #nathanchen#ネイサンチェン #olympicchampion #milanocortinaolympics"

236 likes, 1 comments - nathan_supporting_team_jpn on February 13, 2026: "ネイサン、ジャッキーさんと記者席に座り、何やら雑談中😆 アリス姉さんIGSより！ アリス姉さん、ありがとうございます😊 　 #nathanchen#ネイサンチェン #olympicchampion #milanocortinaolympics".

www.instagram.com

 

[Sylvia]

Salt Lake Tribune article by Julie Jag (Feb. 10, 2026/updated Feb. 12):

Nathan Chen isn’t skating in Italy, but men’s figure skating still revolves around him

Four years after Salt Lake City figure skater Nathan Chen won Olympic gold, he'll be in Milan-Cortina for the 2026 Olympics. He won't be skating, but he will have influence on the outcome of the single men's competition.

www.sltrib.com

Excerpts:

This time, he‘ll be watching from the stands.
“Now,” said Chen, “I get to see what it looks like on the other side.”
Chen never officially retired, but he hasn’t competed since 2022, when he became the only male singles skater to win two gold medals in a single Olympics. His main role in Italy will be schmoozing with sponsors and offering Utah 2034 donors commentary on the men’s skating competition.

“He’s definitely inspired me so much,“ Malinin said of Chen, whom he trained with in the run-up to the 2022 Olympics.
“Just seeing how hard he worked and everything he put in, it was an inspiration for me to put that same amount of work into it.”
Weir said Chen’s impact on the sport went beyond individual skaters.
“You can certainly see a huge influence across especially men’s skating from Nathan Chen,” Weir said. “Whether it’s the way he dressed or the way he skated and the new boundaries he was able to break technically — including so many quadruple jumps.”
Chen says he can’t take complete credit for that evolution. He nods to Japan’s Hanyu and Shoma Uno and his Team USA peer Vincent Zhou as being among those who accelerated the quality and quantity of quads.
“My generation certainly left an impact,” Chen said. He added, “We were pushing quads like crazy.”

Re. quints:

“That,” Chen said, “is the million dollar question.”
He said the answer will depend on the International Skating Union, and what it wants to emphasize. Under the current rules, Chen said, a quint would produce enough value to encourage skaters to attempt it. If the federation adjusts its rules to put more emphasis on the artistic side of the sport, which it is rumored to be considering, that might stall the quint’s arrival.
But even if it pays to quint, is it physically possible? Chen doesn’t know.
“There’s a human limit. I don’t know what that is,” he said. “But we also didn’t think a quad axel was possible.”
What he does know is that he is not working on one. He hardly has the time.
Chen graduated from Yale University with a degree in statistics and data in 2024 and has since been busy preparing his applications for medical school.

Chen is also part of the Utah 2034 steering committee. The 35-member panel is charged with advising the tenor and direction of Salt Lake City’s next Winter Games. Though he’s not been very active so far — other than serving as an ambassador this week in Milan — Chen said he would like to be involved with developing outreach programs to get kids involved with the Olympics.
“The Games represent this idea,” Chen said, “that they are sort of the next inspiration for the next generation.”