{"id":8939,"date":"2017-03-21T21:30:43","date_gmt":"2017-03-22T01:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/?p=8939"},"modified":"2024-11-27T20:03:46","modified_gmt":"2024-11-28T01:03:46","slug":"karen-chen-strives-to-overcome-obstacles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/2017\/03\/21\/karen-chen-strives-to-overcome-obstacles\/","title":{"rendered":"Karen Chen strives to overcome obstacles"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michelle Kennedy<\/a>, special\u00a0to Figure Skaters Online
\nPhotos by Leah Adams<\/p>\n

Karen Chen has become accustomed to overcoming challenges. She captured the bronze medal at the 2015 U.S. Championships, but then fell into a downward spiral of injuries and boot problems. Chen \ufb01nished in a disappointing eighth place at the U.S. Championships in 2016. She then took everyone by surprise by delivering two brilliant performances and capturing the gold medal at the 2017 U.S. Championships in January. With the Olympic Games looming, expectations are high for this 17-year-old.<\/p>\n

Following the U.S. Championships, Chen was hoping to continue her upward momentum at \u00a0the Four Continents Championships. Sadly, she struggled and \ufb01nished in twelfth place. She attributes both nerves and boot problems to her less than stellar performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoing into Four Continents I de\ufb01nitely had the goal of getting on the podium,\u201d Chen\u00a0said on a U.S. Figure Skating media call. \u201cI knew that if I did skate well, it was de\ufb01nitely possible for me. I guess thinking about things like that was just something that I\u2019m not quite used to thinking about yet. It was kind of a little stressful for me and with the addition of all of the boot problems and things, my mind was just very frazzled during the whole week there.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Chen went on to explain that the sole of her boot was collapsing during Four Continents, which was causing quite a bit of ankle pain. Boot issues have plagued Chen throughout her career, but she is certain that she is putting that behind her. She is now becoming proactive with her skates and has a backup pair and she is in the process of having a third pair of skates in the wings in the hopes of quenching these boot problems.<\/p>\n

Once Chen\u00a0had her new skates, the pain subsided and she resumed her training. She spent some time in Michigan with Marina Zueva re-working the footwork in her free skate, but then she hit another speed bump. About two weeks ago, while she was training in California, a skater collided into Chen. This other skater kneed Karen in the right thigh causing some deep bruising. With the help of physical therapy and acupuncture, this accident only derailed\u00a0Chen for a few days. She is now healthy and ready for her World Championships debut.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt Nationals, the biggest reason for my success was that not only was I just really focused on myself, I somehow didn\u2019t really have any expectations,\u201d Chen\u00a0explained. \u201cI knew that for me to get on the podium was a possibility since I did get the bronze in 2015, but I didn\u2019t really think about it. I just went into Nationals attacking everything and having no expectations. I\u2019m going to go into Worlds with that same sort of mindset and hopefully things will go the way that I want them to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chen is coming into the World Championships as not only the new U.S. Champion, but also with the responsibility of maintaining three spots for the U.S. ladies at the 2018 Olympic Games. In order for the U.S. ladies to keep the three spots, the two best results from the World Championships out of Chen, Bell and Wagner must total no more than a thirteenth place \ufb01nish. When asked if she felt the pressure of securing the three spots, she responded: \u201cIt is de\ufb01nitely in the back of my mind, knowing that it is very important that we all skate very well and we bring back three spots for the Olympics,\u201d Chen said. \u201cAt the same time I don\u2019t want to obsess over that. I just really want to be focused on what I want to get done at Worlds. It worked for me at Nationals, so I\u2019m hoping to have the same mindset going in. It is my \ufb01rst Worlds and I want to, in a way enjoy myself, but at the same time be very focused on doing my job and putting out two good skates.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Chen\u00a0prepares to take on her \ufb01rst World Championships, she sought advice from 1992 Olympic champion, Kristi Yamaguchi. Chen and Yamaguchi\u00a0got together at a coffee shop only a few days ago. \u201cShe told me to skate dumb,\u201d Chen\u00a0recalled. \u201cYour body knows what to do and when you\u2019re out there you want to just let your body do what it knows best and things will happen the way that you want them to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Armed with solid advice, new boots and full heath, Chen is ready and determined going into the World Championships. Her critics are concerned that she has only been in a handful of international competitions as a senior and does not have the best track record in those events. Nonetheless Chen came through at the U.S. Championships and could very well be the dark horse at the World Championship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Michelle Kennedy, special\u00a0to Figure Skaters Online Photos by Leah Adams Karen Chen has become accustomed to overcoming challenges. She captured the bronze medal at the 2015 U.S. Championships, but then fell into a downward spiral of injuries and boot problems. Chen \ufb01nished in a disappointing eighth place at the U.S. Championships in 2016. She…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8941,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-worlds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8939"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48174,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8939\/revisions\/48174"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}