Nathan Chen

Chen started skating in a pair of his sister's skates at age 3 in his first coach Stephanie Grosscup's beginner class in Salt Lake City and entered his first figure skating competition in 2003.[47][48] From 2007 to 2009, he qualified to compete in the U.S. Junior Figure Skating Championships at the juvenile and intermediate levels. He placed 10th in juveniles in 2007, won bronze in juveniles in 2008, and he won the intermediate men's silver medal in 2009.[49][50] During those early years, he was coached by Karel Kovar but started working with Genya Chernyshova when he was 9.[51][52]

Chen advanced to the novice level in the 2009–10 season. He became the youngest men's novice champion in the history of U.S. Figure Skating at age 10, winning the national novice title at the 2010 U.S. Championships[53][54] in Spokane, Washington.[55] Due to his young age, he opted to remain at the novice level for the 2010–2011 season and defended his novice title at the 2011 U.S. Championships in Greensboro, North Carolina.[56][57]

In the 2011–2012 season, Chen moved up to the junior level. He continued working with Genya Chernyshova but also traveled to Lake Arrowhead, California to work with jump specialist Rafael Arutyunyan.[58] Arutyunyan became his main coach in mid-December 2011.[59] Chen won the junior men's title at the 2012 U.S. Championships in San Jose, California, on January 24, 2012.[60] Making his first international appearance, he won the novice men's event at the 2012 Gardena Spring Trophy in Selva Val Gardena, Italy.[61][62]

Chen became age-eligible (13 years old) to compete in the ISU Junior Grand Prix (JGP) series.[60] His first assignment was JGP Austria in Linz from September 12–16, 2012.[63] He won the gold medal with the highest score (222.00 points) ever awarded at the time in the JGP series.[64] He withdrew from JGP Croatia Cup in Zagreb after sustaining a lower leg injury[65] but went on to win the junior men's bronze medal at the 2013 U.S. Championships in Omaha, Nebraska, on January 22, 2013.[66]

Staying at the junior level, he was assigned to ISU Junior Grand Prix events in Mexico and Belarus. In both events, he won gold medals.[67][68] These qualified him for the 2013 Junior Grand Prix Final in Fukuoka, Japan, where he won the junior men's bronze medal.[69]

Chen during the junior men's medal ceremony at the 2014 U.S. Championships

On January 9, 2014, Chen won his second U.S. junior title with a record total score of 223.93 at the 2014 U.S. Championships in Boston, Massachusetts.[70]

He was assigned to the 2014 World Junior Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria, and won the bronze medal.[71]

Chen had his national senior debut at the 2015 Pacific Sectional Championships in November 2014 and landed a clean quadruple toe loop and double toe loop combination (4T+2T) in his free skate,[72] winning the senior men's competition and advanced to the 2015 U.S. Championships in Greensboro, North Carolina. He developed a growth-related heel injury a week before the national championships and competed with modified versions of his short and long programs.[73] He placed eighth overall in his senior national championship debut in January 2015.[74]

After the competition, Chen was named to the U.S. team for the 2015 World Junior Championships in Tallinn, Estonia, where he finished 4th.[75]

In the 2015–16 ISU Junior Grand Prix series, Chen won gold in both Colorado Springs, Colorado[76] and in Logroño, Spain.[77] In December 2015, he stood atop the podium at the Junior Grand Prix Final in Barcelona, Spain.[78]

At the 2016 U.S. Championships, Chen became the first American man to land two quadruple jumps in a short program[79] and the first American man to land four quadruple jumps in a long program. He finished third overall behind Adam Rippon and Max Aaron, the former not attempting any quads and the latter landing two. This event reignited the long-standing debate within the figure skating community over whether artistry should trump athleticism.[80][81] While attempting a jump during the exhibition on the same day, Chen sustained an avulsion injury to his left hip and underwent surgery, forcing him to withdraw from the 2016 World Junior Championships in Debrecen, Hungary, and the 2016 World Championships in Boston, Massachussetts.[82][83] After a month of rehabilitation at the U.S. Olympic Training Center (OPTC) in Chula Vista, California, he went to the U.S. Olympic Training Center (OPTC) in Colorado Springs, Colorado, to work with strength and conditioning specialists and continue his rehabilitation.[84] He was back on the ice by May but mainly doing off-ice training[85] and resumed full training around July.[84]

Chen at the 2016–17 Grand Prix Final

Ahead of the 2016–2017 season, Chen traveled to Canton, Michigan to have his programs choreographed by Marina Zueva. "I spent a week there, and we hit it off really well. We talked it over and thought it'd be a good idea to go to Michigan and work on PCS a little bit."[86] By September 2016, six months after his hip surgery, Zueva and Oleg Epstein were coaching him in Canton.[87] In preparation for his international senior debut, he began training the 4Lz and 4F.[88]

Chen began his 2016–2017 season with a gold medal at the 2016 CS Finlandia Trophy, 7.71 points ahead of the silver medalist Patrick Chan of Canada. He then competed at two Grand Prix events. For his Grand Prix series debut at the 2016 Trophée de France in Paris, he cleanly landed a quadruple lutz and triple toe combination jump and a quadruple flip in both his short and long programs. His short program scored 92.85, breaking the American short program record of 90.30 held by Olympic champion Evan Lysacek since the 2010 Winter Olympics.[89] After finishing fourth in France, he returned to Arutyunyan in California.[86] At the 2016 NHK Trophy in Sapporo, Chen placed second behind Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu, qualifying him for the Grand Prix Final (GPF) in Marseille, France.

Chen at the 2017 U.S. Championships

In December at the GPF, Chen placed 5th in the short program but won the free skate with a performance that included four quadruple jumps. Earning a total score of 282.85 points, he won the silver medal behind Yuzuru Hanyu and became the second-youngest male skater (age 17) to medal at the GPF after Evgeni Plushenko, who won his first GPF medal at age 16 in 1999. He spent two weeks later that month working in Canton, Michigan, modifying the element order and choreography of his programs.[86]

At the 2017 U.S. Championships in Kansas City, Missouri, Chen performed two quadruple jumps (4Lz+3T and 4F) in the short program and five in the free skate (4Lz+3T, 4F, 4T+2T+2Lo, 4T and 4S), the first skater to do so.[90] He won the U.S. title with the highest scores in U.S. Figure Skating history (106.39 in the short program, 212.08 in the free skate, 318.47 overall) and became the youngest U.S. men's champion in more than 5 decades.[91] Following the event, he and teammate Jason Brown were named to the 2017 World team by U.S. Figure Skating.[92][93]

In February, Chen won the 2017 Four Continents Championships, becoming the third person to score over 100 points in a short program[94] and over 300 points in an International Skating Union competition. He became the youngest Four Continents men's champion in history (until Kao Miura's win in 2023) .[95][96][97]

In April, at the World Championships in Helsinki, the boots that he had begun using after Four Continents were on the verge of falling apart; however, he decided to continue using them, using duct tape and hockey laces, because he felt that the back-up boots were too new.[98][99] He attempted a record total of eight quadruple jumps, two in the short program and six in the long program, but fell on two quadruple jumps in his long program, and placed sixth overall at the competition.[100] He and teammate Jason Brown, who placed seventh, secured three places for the United States in the men's event at the 2018 Winter Olympics.

Chen rounded off the season with a 3rd place team and 2nd place personal finish at the 2017 World Team Trophy in Tokyo.

Chen started the 2017–2018 season by winning the 2017 CS U.S. International Figure Skating Classic in September in Salt Lake City, Utah, debuting his short program "Nemesis" choreographed by Shae-Lynn Bourne and free skate with music from the film "Mao's Last Dancer" choreographed by Lori Nichol. He landed his first quad loop in the free skate and became the first skater to land five different quads (4T, 4S, 4Lo, 4F, and 4Lz) in competition.[101] He was selected to represent Team USA alongside Jeremy Abbott, Bradie Tennell and Maria Bell at Japan Open where he finished fourth in the free program[102] with Team North America finishing third overall.[103][104]

Chen won his first Grand Prix title at the 2017 Rostelecom Cup in Moscow.[105] After placing first in the short program and second in the free skate, he defeated the reigning World and Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan.[106] At 2017 Skate America, Chen won his second Grand Prix title, finishing ahead of teammate Adam Rippon.[107] He skated the short program, which earned him a new personal best score, with a left blade that had a nick in the outside edge.[108] He replaced the blade for the free skate but stated afterward, "I think that was a bad call. It was a little too sharp on the inside edge, and every time I pressed into it for sal(chow), toe, and even flip, it would catch into the ice way harder than I was used to."[109] With two victories, Chen earned the top qualifying spot for the Grand Prix Final in Nagoya, Japan,[110] where he had a narrow victory over Shoma Uno of Japan and Mikhail Kolyada of Russia. He became the first U.S. man to win the title since Evan Lysacek in 2009.[111][112]

The 2018 U.S. Championships took place in early January in San Jose, California. Chen performed a total of seven clean quadruple jumps (two in the short program and five in the free skate) and scored a combined total of 315.23 to win his second consecutive national title.[113] Following the event, Chen, Adam Rippon and Vincent Zhou were selected to the 2018 U.S. Figure Skating Olympic Team to compete at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.[114]

At the 2018 Winter Olympics, Chen placed fourth in the men's short program in the team event and became the first skater to land a quad flip at the Winter Olympics.[115] He won a bronze medal in the team event alongside teammates Mirai Nagasu, Bradie Tennell, Adam Rippon, Alexa Scimeca Knierim, Chris Knierim, Maia Shibutani, and Alex Shibutani.[116][117] A week later, Chen performed poorly in the men's individual short program. After falling on his opening quad and failing to complete the planned combination, he stepped out of a quadruple toe loop on his second jump and fell on his triple axel to finish seventeenth heading into the free skate. “Honestly, it was bad,” he said afterward. “I made as many mistakes as I possibly could have.”[118] Chen went on to win the free skate with a new personal best score of 215.08 and made Olympic history by being the first skater to land five clean quads. He had attempted six quads. He finished fifth overall.[119] After coming down with the flu, he withdrew from the gala and left PyeongChang early to avoid infecting other athletes ahead of their competitions, U.S. Figure Skating said.[120]

Chen at the 2018 World Championships

In March, at the 2018 World Figure Skating Championships held in Milan, Italy, Chen placed first in both the short (101.94)[121] and free (219.46) programs. He again attempted and landed six quads in the free program, winning the 2018 world champion title with a total score of 321.40 points, and became the second skater to break 320 points after Yuzuru Hanyu. Chen became the first U.S. men's world champion since Evan Lysacek in 2009 and the tenth in history. He was the youngest (18 years, 10 months, 19 days) men's world champion since Evgeni Plushenko (18 years, 4 months, 19 days) in 2001. Chen's victory and teammate Max Aaron's eleventh-place finish ensured Team USA three spots for the men at the following year's World Figure Skating Championships in Japan. His margin of victory over silver medalist Shoma Uno was the greatest at a world championships, Olympic Winter Games or Grand Prix Final under this points system at 47.63 points.[122]

In the spring of 2018, Chen was accepted into Yale University. "Going to Yale next fall is the goal right now," he said. "I am going to Bulldog Days, where I will talk about everything and try to figure things out."[123]

Chen at the 2018 Internationaux de France

Chen started college at Yale University. His assignments for the 2018-19 Grand Prix series were Skate America and Internationaux de France.[124] Fortunately for Chen, Skate America took place during the Yale October recess and Internationaux de France fell during the Thanksgiving recess. The 2018–19 Grand Prix Final began the day before Yale's pre-finals reading period started. And the 2019 World Championships, in Saitama, Japan, were during Yale's spring break.[125]

At Skate America in Everett, Washington, in October, Chen skated to the music of "Caravan" by Fanfare Ciocărlia(choreographed by Shae-Lynn Bourne) in the short program[126] and "Land of All" by Woodkid (choreographed by Samuel Chouinard and Marie-France Dubreuil) in the free skate.[127] He won both segments of the competition and defended his title as the men's Skate America champion by the largest point margin in the history of the competition.[128]

In an interview with ISU about his programs, Chen said: "The short program (Caravan) is a lot of fun. [...] She (Bourne) wants me to dance to the music so that other people are excited to dance as well. [...] I originally chose the piece (Land of All) for the long because I needed something that contrasted the short. [...] The music is the soundtrack to a movie called 'Desierto', and it is about immigration into the U.S. Obviously, I don't want to make my programs about this or anything political but, at the same time, just because it has that deep and darker meaning requires me to add another layer to my skating," he explained.[129]

Chen at the 2018 Internationaux de France

At Internationaux de France in Grenoble in November, Chen fell on his quad flip in the short program and placed third behind Jason Brown and Alexander Samarin entering the free skate. Chen received an edge call on his quad flip but otherwise landed three quadruple jumps (4F, 4T, and 4T+3T) in the free skate and won the competition with a total score of 271.58.[130]

By winning both Skate America and Internationaux de France, Chen qualified to compete in 2018–19 Grand Prix Final in Vancouver, Canada.[131]

At the 2018–19 Grand Prix Final in early December, Chen competed with the other five qualifiers, Shoma Uno, Michal Březina, Sergei Voronov, Cha Jun-hwan and Keegan Messing (Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu qualified but withdrew due to injury). Chen had mistakes in both his short and long programs - a missed combination jump in the short program and a fall in the long program, but won both segments of the competition to collect his second Grand Prix Final title.[132]

The gold medal marks Chen the fourth man after Evgeni Plushenko, Patrick Chan and Yuzuru Hanyu to win consecutive Grand Prix Finals since the event's debut in 1995,[133] and the second man after Evgeni Plushenko to win every one of his Grand Prix competitions in two consecutive seasons.[134]

At the 2019 U.S. Championships in Detroit, Michigan, Chen gave a strong performance receiving a national record score of 113.42 for a two-quad short program and a national record score of 228.80 for a four-quad free skate totaling a national record combined score of 342.22 points,[135] winning the championship by 58 points over Vincent Zhou in second place[136]. Chen became the first man to win three straight national titles since Johnny Weir in 2004–2006.[137] He said, "I'm happy with what I did, and hopefully, I can do that in other competitions, The first few jumps are a little like a checklist, and once I get done with that, I can focus on the music and the audience. Nationals is no joke. You can't discount any of these other skaters who are here. I'm really proud of myself with all of the work I put in, and it's an honor to be up here with these two guys. I don't mind the training atmosphere I am in, and I am so thankful Yale has given me the ice time to pursue my dreams outside of school. I feel like I am improving competition to competition. This gives me a lot of confidence going into the future."[138]

Competing at the 2019 World Championships in Saitama, Japan, in March, Chen successfully defended his world champion title and broke the world record for both the free skate and total score, with 216.02 and 323.42 points respectively, and won the short, free and the title by 22.45 points over Japan's Yuzuru Hanyu.[139] He became the first U.S. man to win back-to-back world titles since Scott Hamilton won four in a row from 1981 to 1984. With teammate Vincent Zhou winning the bronze medal, two Americans stood on the men's podium at Worlds for the first time since 1996, when Todd Eldredge won gold and Rudy Galindo took the bronze in Edmonton, Canada.[140]

Chen concluded the season at another event in Japan, the 2019 World Team Trophy, where Team USA won the gold medal.[141][142]

Chen at the 2019 Internationaux de France

Chen opened his season with a free skate at the Japan Open, placing first in the men's event,[143] and contributed to Team North America's bronze medal finish.[144][145] In the 2019-2020 Grand Prix series, Chen defended his title at Skate America in Las Vegas, Nevada, with his third consecutive win. This was the first time anyone had won Skate America three times consecutively since Todd Eldredge won four from 1994 to 1997.[146] The 44-point margin of victory was the largest ever at Skate America.[147] He then won his second straight Internationaux de France title in Grenoble, France, and became the first singles skater since Evgeni Plushenko nearly two decades earlier to win eight straight Grand Prix events.[148] In winning two Grand Prix events, Chen qualified for the Grand Prix Final.[149]

At the Grand Prix Final, Chen and Japan's Yuzuru Hanyu were considered favorites and were expected to be battling for gold and silver.[150] Chen skated cleanly in the short program, setting a new personal best score of 110.38, 0.15 short of Hanyu's short program world record at the time, which had been set at the 2018 Rostelecom Cup. Hanyu failed to complete his combination jump, resulting in Chen leading by almost thirteen points going into the free skate.[151] Chen skated cleanly in the free skate and set a new world record for the free skate (224.92 points) and new world record for combined total score (335.30 points), winning the title with 43.87 points and beating Hanyu for the second time since the 2018 Olympics.[152][153]

Suffering from the flu, Chen was only able to fully resume training less than two weeks before the 2020 U.S. Championships took place in Greensboro, North Carolina, where he won his fourth national title and became the first man to win four consecutive U.S. men's titles since Olympic champion Brian Boitano in 1988.[154] He was assigned to compete at the World Championships in Montreal, but these were canceled as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.[155]

With the pandemic still raging, the ISU assigned skaters to the 2020-2021 Grand Prix series based largely on geographic location, with Chen again set to attend Skate America, and was considered the favorite.[156] He won both the short program and the free skate, with a total score of 299.15, despite popping two planned jumps in the free.[157][158] After the competition, Chen revealed to Olympic Channel that he is taking a break from school to focus on skating and the next Olympics. "(The Olympics) are the end goal," Chen said, "It's the driving force behind a lot of what we do and a lot of the decisions that we make."[159]

Chen made history at the 2021 U.S. Championships, winning his fifth consecutive National title. He became the first man to win five consecutive National titles since Dick Button, who won seven straight from 1946 to 1952. Chen cited Button as inspiration. "It's incredible to try to follow in his footsteps," Chen said of Button. "It means the world. Dick is a true skating icon, and it just feels incredible to be trying to chase something that someone like that has done. I'm nowhere near the level he was at, but it's just cool to be able to be even mentioned in his sort of realm of legendness." During his free performance, Chen attempted five quads, landing four cleanly.[160]

At the 2021 World Championships in Stockholm, Sweden, Chen placed third after the short program with a score of 98.85 after a fall on the quadruple Lutz. In the free program, he placed first with a score of 222.03, with a clean program landing five quads, and won his third world title with a total score of 320.88. Chen became the first man since Patrick Chan (2011–13) and the first American (male or female) since Scott Hamilton (1982–84) to win three World titles in a row.[161] In a post-competition interview, Chen said he felt he had grown since the 2018 Olympics when he was seventeenth, heading into the free skate: "I think having had that experience now going into this competition, it definitely helps me retain some resiliency, I think. And I think that definitely, you know, thankfully came into play today."[162]

Chen competed as part of the American team at the 2021 World Team Trophy held in Osaka, Japan, where he placed first ahead of Yuzuru Hanyu with his combined scores after also placing first in the short program. His result helped Team USA win the silver medal.[163][164]

Chen began the Olympic season at 2021 Skate America, where he placed fourth in the short program. He fell on his first quadruple jump. A poor landing on the second quadruple jump meant he was unable to execute the required two-jump combination. He placed second in the free skate despite doubling on two of his six planned quads, finishing in third place overall behind Vincent Zhou and Shoma Uno. Speaking afterward about the end of his winning streak since the 2018 World Championships, Chen said, "it's not devastating. It was inevitably going to end as a winning streak at some point in time, and I am really proud of these guys up here."[165] Competing the following week at the 2021 Skate Canada International, Chen rebounded to win both segments of the competition and take the gold medal, with a 48-point margin over silver medalist Jason Brown.[166] Chen's results qualified him to the Grand Prix Final, but it was subsequently canceled due to restrictions prompted by the Omicron variant.[167]

At the 2022 U.S. Championships in Nashville, Chen won his sixth consecutive men's title, a feat only achieved by the legendary Dick Button 70 years earlier. Chen scored 115.39, a new national record, in the short program[168] and 212.62 in the free skate for a total of 328.01 points.[169][170] After the competition, Chen was named to the American Olympic team along with Zhou and Brown.[171]

Chen began the 2022 Winter Olympics that took place in Beijing, China, as the American entry in the men's short program of the Olympic team event, where he had skated poorly four years earlier. Delivering a clean skate, he placed first in the segment with a new personal best of 111.71, securing ten points for the American team.[172] He remarked after that, "it feels great to have a short program I actually skated well, at an Olympic experience."[173] Team USA would go on to win the silver medal, Chen's second Olympic medal. However, the team members were not awarded the medals following a positive doping test of Russia's gold medalist Kamila Valieva, pending an investigation, which is still ongoing as of December 2022.[174][175] Two days later, Chen set an international figure skating world record in the men's short program with a score of 113.97,[176] topping the previous record of 111.82 set by Yuzuru Hanyu in 2020.[177][178] Chen would go on to win the gold medal with a free skate score of 218.63 which included five quad jumps, finishing with a combined score of 332.60.[12] After the Olympics, Chen withdrew from the 2022 World Championships due to injury.[179] He went back to Yale University for his junior year in the fall of 2022 to finish college.[180]

According to Forbes, Chen has long-term deals with 11 partners, many of which overlap with Team USA’s official sponsorships, including Bridgestone, Panasonic, Comcast, Nike, Toyota and Visa. He also works with consumer brands Grubhub and Airweave.[224][225] Other sponsors leading up to the 2018 and 2022 Winter Olympics included OMEGA, Coca Cola, United Airlines and Kellogg’s.[226][227][228][229]

He also starred in TV spots for the 2022 movie Jurassic World: Dominion with fellow Team USA Olympians Shaun White and Mikaela Shifrin.[230]

In 2021, Chen was part of luxury jewelry designer David Yurman's "My New York" social campaign[231] and partnered with them to create an exclusive bracelet benefiting non-profit collective "Gold House" which is a community of "Asian founders, creative voices and leaders dedicated to unifying the world’s largest populace–Asians and Pacific Islanders–to enable more authentic multicultural representation and societal equity."[232]

He partnered with Invisalign in October 2022.[233]

Chen is a brand ambassador for Panasonic and a promoter of the "Panasonic Green Impact" initiative alongside tennis player Naomi Osaka and swimmer Michael Phelps. Panasonic enlisted the three celebrity athletes for its sustainability mission and they were part of an ad campaign for climate change that included individual commercials and a commercial in which all three athletes are featured.[234][235] Chen made appearances for Panasonic at CES 2023 in Las Vegas, which is an annual tech conference organized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), and spoke at Panasonic's press conference that took place on January 4, 2023.[236][237]

In January 2023, Chen was announced as one of the celebrity guests to be featured in the fifth season of "Time to Walk" on Apple Fitness Plus which is an audio walking experience produced by Apple that pairs music and inspirational monologues from famous musicians, athletes, and actors with the exercise tracking. Other "Time to Walk" celebrity guests include Dolly Parton, actress Jamie Lee Curtis and singer Shawn Mendes.[238][239]

In June 2021, Chen was appointed to the Athlete Advisory Committee, part of the Salt Lake City-Utah Games Committee, bidding to bring the Olympic Winter Games back to Salt Lake City in 2030 or 2034.[240] Chen said that Salt Lake City has great infrastructure already built in and the 2002 Winter Olympics gave him as a young three-year-old kid the motivation, drive and inspiration to want to go to an Olympics himself.[241]

On August 5, 2022, Chen was named Goodwill Ambassador of the Lake Placid 2023 FISU World University Games. Chen stated that he was happy to be a part of January’s Lake Placid 2023 FISU World University Games and helping to support everyone involved. He said he was really impressed with what FISU has been doing here and that he hoped to see more collegiate engagement in the US. The Lake Placid 2023 FISU World University Games took place from January 12 to 22, 2023.[242][243][244] Chen also gave a presentation on "Panasonic - Creating a Greener More Equitable Future" at the International University Sports Federation (FISU) World Conference.[245] The conference focused on climate change and winter sports and took place during the Games.[246][247][248]

Chen's memoir One Jump at a Time: My Story was released by HarperCollins on November 22, 2022. The book follows Chen from childhood as the youngest son of Chinese American immigrants in the Salt Lake City area to his rise and the many challenges along the way in figure skating buoyed by the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in his hometown – including his family’s determination to find the resources to pay for expensive training, a painful hip injury and surgery in 2016, and a disappointing fifth-place finish at the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018.[249][250][251]

HarperCollins Children's Books will release Chen's first picture book Wei Skates On on February 21, 2023, with illustrations by Lorraine Nam. The book tells the story about a young boy named Wei who learns to find the joy in sports no matter what the outcome.[252][253][254]

Chen will be featured in the children’s book Who Is Nathan Chen which will be released on Aug 29, 2023, by Penguin Books.[255] The children’s book is part of the non-fiction Who Was also known as Who HQ series that tell the stories of trailblazers, legends, innovators, cool places, and important events.[256] Covering everything from sports to politics, the Who HQ Now series focuses on trending topics and prominent subjects discussed in the news.[257]

He has been in magazines such as Vogue,[258] GQ,[259] GQ Korea,[260] Harper's Bazaar,[24] Time,[261] Teen Vogue,[262] Elle,[263] Elle Korea,[264][265] Elle Japan,[266] Cosmopolitan[267] and Spur Magazine[268] and has graced the covers of "World Figure Skating Magazine" and "International Figure Skating Magazine".[269]

On July 12, 2022, Chen made an appearance on the American dance competition television series on NBC's Dancing With Myself as a creator. One creator demonstrates a series of dance moves and each contestant must then perform those moves.[270]

Chen was featured in an episode of Secret Celebrity Renovation on CBS on August 12, 2022. The show gives celebrities the opportunity to gift a renovation to a person who helped guide them to success. For Chen, who acknowledges the many people who have helped him along the way, that meant gifting the Salt Lake City Sports Complex a new skater’s lounge and dressing room.[271][272]

He reunited with all four of his siblings in order to compete on the Steve Harvey-hosted game show Celebrity Family Feud against actor Simu Liu's team. The episode aired on ABC on August 21, 2022.[273]

Chen has been a guest and made appearances on the Today show,[274] The Late Late Show with James Corden,[275] The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,[276] Access Hollywood[277] and Good Morning America.[278]

He starred in three episodes of "From the Top: Olympians and Rockstars" with Hayley Kiyoko which was released on the Olympic Channel in 2021 with Elton John as executive producer.[279][280] When Elton John and Britney Spears released the acoustic version of their song "Hold Me Closer" on November 18, 2022, they also released an official music video starring Chen.[281][282]

Chen (center) with Yuzuru Hanyu (left) and Kévin Aymoz (right) at the 2019–20 Grand Prix Final podium

Chen (center) with Alexander Samarin (left) and Kévin Aymoz (right) at the 2019 Internationaux de France podium

Chen (center) with Jason Brown (left) and Alexander Samarin (right) at the 2018 Internationaux de France podium

Chen (center) with Shoma Uno (left) and Mikhail Kolyada (right) at the 2018 World Championships podium

Chen (center) with Yuzuru Hanyu (left) and Shoma Uno (right) at the 2017 Four Continents Championships podium

Chen (left) with Yuzuru Hanyu (center) and Shoma Uno (right) at the 2016–17 Grand Prix Final podium

Small medals for short and free programs awarded only at ISU Championships. At team events, medals awarded for team results only. Current ISU world bests highlighted in bold and italic.

Chen (center) with Dmitri Aliev (left) and Sota Yamamoto (right) at the 2015–16 Junior Grand Prix Final podium

2015 Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final Junior men's singles medal ceremonies.

Small medals for short and free programs awarded only at ISU Championships.