But to hear her tell it, she\u2019s just another member of the team.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew people that I met during my freshman year that were in the club, and I knew that the club was growing, so I just naturally wanted to be involved,\u201d Chen said in an interview via Zoom. \u201cIt just naturally became something that I wanted to do, since I love skating so much. I wanted to help grow the club. And I\u2019m really thankful to be co-president and co-captain of the club, to be able to do my best and bring some wisdom to the club.\u201d<\/p>\n She\u2019s serving as co-president of the club for the second year in a row, and competes in the solo ice dance event. Last season, when the team needed some extra points to clinch a spot at Collegiate Nationals, Chen even skated in an extra pattern dance event at a teammate\u2019s request. There\u2019s no ego in her participation.<\/p>\n She joined the club when she returned for her sophomore year on campus in the fall of 2022. Chen attended Cornell as a freshman during the 2019-2020 academic year, and then took some time off to focus on her training for the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, where she won gold alongside her teammates in the Figure Skating Team event.<\/p>\n Her fellow skaters at Cornell were excited to have an Olympian among their ranks, Chen shared, but said her presence was also a little intimidating at first. \u201cAs a person who\u2019s naturally introverted, I had to really try to be extroverted and talk to everyone and make sure that everyone feels welcome,\u201d Chen said. \u201cBecause at the end of the day, that\u2019s what the club is all about. We\u2019re very welcoming. If you\u2019re interested in skating or have even just taken a PE [ice skating] class at Cornell, you can join the club.\u201d<\/p>\n For any collegiate athletes worried about the prospect of competing against an Olympian, Chen isn\u2019t skating in the women\u2019s singles event anymore. She\u2019s traded her triple jumps for twizzles, and enjoys the opportunity to express herself in solo dance.<\/p>\n \u201cSolo dance is just much more flexible. I\u2019m not really worried about if the judges like my music or if my coach likes it,\u201d Chen said. \u201cSimilar to what I would do for shows, I just pick music that I like and then go from there. So it gives me a chance to be creative.\u201d<\/p>\n Her brother, Jeffrey Chen, is a senior ice dancer for Team USA, and she joked that he doesn\u2019t have too much extra time to offer her dance tips, but he will help with twizzles when she asks.<\/p>\n Chen and her teammates in the Cornell Figure Skating Club practice on Mondays and Wednesdays at Lynah Rink, the hockey arena on campus. But school is her main focus over ice time these days, she says.<\/p>\n Her major is human development and she\u2019s applying to physical therapy schools, with an eye on potentially working with skaters as a PT in the future. She\u2019ll graduate from Cornell in the spring of 2025.<\/p>\n Until then, she\u2019ll be balancing her studies with time on the ice at Lynah Rink. Besides competing in the U.S. Collegiate Series and aiming to help the team qualify for the Collegiate Final, she\u2019s also looking forward to the club\u2019s annual ice show. They had more than 700 in the crowd at last year\u2019s show, and Chen\u2019s goal is to fill the arena like a hockey game for this year\u2019s event. It\u2019s safe to say that seeing an Olympic Champion perform will definitely draw a crowd.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was honestly one of the most amazing experiences ever. Leading up to that point, we were told we have so many appeals going on, we don\u2019t know. There was some talk of having it postponed to Milan [host of the 2026 Winter Olympics], because we just didn\u2019t know if all the things going on behind closed doors would be finished in time. So all of us were just a bit like, okay, it might not happen,\u201d Chen said. \u201cSo to be able to go from that to, we\u2019re booking flights, it was just a crazy thing. For me, the biggest thing, I felt very grateful and thankful to have that moment with my team, but also to have my family there. That was a positive thing, because if it happened in Beijing, family wouldn\u2019t have been there to experience that moment with us.\u201d<\/p>\n After the highs of the Olympics, one could question why Chen wants to keep competing on the collegiate stage. But she says she needs that time on the ice for her mental health.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was competing full time, I feel like skating was the cause of my mental health stuff going on, since I was under a lot of pressure and stress. But now that pressure and stress has shifted to school instead, and skating has become something to help me cope with that,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ll be sitting in lectures [thinking], \u2018I don\u2019t really know what\u2019s going on, this is really hard.\u2019 But then I know when I put my skates on and I\u2019m on the ice, I know what I\u2019m doing and I feel confident.\u201d<\/p>\n Chen is among a number of elite Team USA skaters who have gone on to compete at the collegiate level. Catch up with them all here in our series about U.S. Collegiate Skating:<\/p>\n Medals and Med School: Joonsoo Kim<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Wren Warne-Jacobsen\u2019s Art of Balance<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Former Team USA pairs skater Audrey Lu embraces collegiate skating<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/IMG_0804.jpg\")
<\/a>When Karen Chen takes the ice to compete for the Cornell University Figure Skating Club this season, she\u2019ll make history with her presence. Chen will be the first U.S. Olympic Champion to compete at the collegiate level.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>Last season, she skated to songs by pop singer Billie Eilish, and this year she\u2019s skating to the soundtrack from the movie \u201cThe Theory of Everything.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a>Chen received her Olympic Gold Medal this summer, in a ceremony at the 2024 Paris Olympics, after a long delay in awarding the medals, due to the doping case against Russian figure skater Kamilia Valieva. The U.S. team found out they\u2019d finally be getting their medals just a week before the August 7 ceremony in Paris. Chen\u2019s parents and brother were able to travel to the celebration.<\/p>\n