Not only did he win Olympic gold in Beijing, Nathan Chen took the sport of figure skating to whole new heights when he landed a record five quad jumps. Now the original “quad king” is coaching on the very ice where he trained.
Four years after he wowed the world, Chen is back at Great Park Ice Rink in Irvine, where the gold medalist fueled his Olympic dreams with a new goal in mind: Helping the next generation of figure skaters.
“It feels like an honor, because I think he’s one of the best skaters and he has a lot of really good technique, it’s really nice to learn from him,” said Yedda Ma, one of Chen’s students.
The 26-year-old started a skate camp called “Your True Step” with friends and fellow skaters Jean-Luc Baker and choreographer Sam Chouinard.
“When I watched him on TV, I was like ‘Oh my gosh, I hope I can be like him someday.’ And when I see him, I am so happy, and I feel like I have met one of the stars of skating,” said 12-year-old Olivia Jung.
Chen credits Baker for the idea behind Your True Step and says the goal is to teach young skaters lessons both on and off the ice.
“I think the basis of our project was just to, you know, recognize that skating isn’t just the end-all be-all, it’s a step towards something else,” said Chen. “It’s just like you learn so much through the sport and we just hope that it’s a sort of representative of like a stepping stone to something else. And that’s kind of what your true step.”
Talent came at a tender age for Chen, whose Olympic career has been followed closely since his golden days in Beijing. Chen says he sees himself in some of the kids he works with.
“We just came from a seminar in Boston, and there’s a young kid that looks exactly like me, jumps very similar to me. Everyone around him is like, ‘Oh, that’s young Nathan.’ So it’s quite funny to be able to see stuff like that. And there’s a lot of talent,” said Chen.
Chen’s next step is applying for med school after graduating from Yale last year. He won’t be competing in the 2026 Winter Olympics, but he hasn’t officially retired from the sport either.
“It’s definitely very fulfilling. I’ve always wanted to find ways to, of course, stay connected in the sport in ways that perhaps I wasn’t before, and this is definitely a really cool way in which I’ve found and I’ve enjoyed it a lot,” said Chen.
The Opening Ceremony for the Milan-Cortina Olympics is scheduled for Feb. 6 with competition beginning Feb. 4. The Closing Ceremony is Feb. 22.
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