Beijing gold-winner Nathan Chen teases Olympic return at Milano Cortina 2026
The defending Olympic champion in men’s singles figure skating, who stepped away from the sport earlier this year to focus on his studies, hints at a return to Olympic ice.
Figure Skating
The American gold-medal winner in men’s singles figure skating from the Beijing 2022 Olympics, Nathan Chen, stepped away from the sport earlier this year to focus on his studies. But the lure of the Games is never far away, especially for a champion.
“It’s an experience that you will remember for the rest of your life [competing in the Olympic Games]. So I would love to have another opportunity to do that,” the 23-year-old Chen told Hollywood Life on 20 October, seeming to hint at a possible return for the 2026 Games in Milano Cortina.
“But right now, of course, my focus is on getting through school which is taking up the bulk of my time,” he added. “Once I finish that, I’ll spend a little more time and decide where I’m at from a skating perspective.”
The three-time world champion has warm memories of winning his first Olympic Gold in Beijing. And he says the time he spent in the sport of figure skating remains with him as he aims to complete his course of study in statistics and data sciences at Yale University – one of the world’s top institutes of higher learning.
“Being able to come in with the perspective of trying to be better every single day has helped me get to where I am in skating,” said Chen, who set the competition alight in Beijing eight months ago with a winning performance that included five straight quads at the Capital Indoor Stadium. “It’s been an amazing journey and I’ve loved every moment of it.”
Chen, who pulled out of the world championships in March with a nagging injury before announcing he was stepping away from the sport in a larger sense, will not be involved in this weekend’s Skate America competition in Norwood, Mass (USA).
The event marks the start of the major competition calendar as the first of six Grand Prix of Figure Skating events in October and signals the start of the traditional Olympic four-year cycle that will culminate in northern Italy in the winter of 2026.
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