'A family feel': U.S. men's skaters Chen, Zhou and Brown are ready for Olympic ice in Beijing

With Chinese heritage and ties to the city of Beijing, U.S. figure skaters Nathan Chen and Vincent Zhou can remember coming here as kids - and going to the nearby Beijing Zoo - just a stone's throw away from the Capital Indoor Stadium, the site of the figure skating event at Beijing 2022.

"It's wonderful to be here," Chen told reporters on Tuesday (1 February) in Beijing. "I was here when I was 10 years old, so it's really cool to be [back]. I remember going to the Beijing Zoo. Every time we're driving from the [Athlete] Village here, I'm like, 'Oh, I was here when I was 10!' So it's kind of cool to be able to see that."

Zhou was here as a seven-year-old in 2008 - and has a similar memory as his teammate Chen.

"I came here for two and a half weeks in 2008 for vacation," Zhou said. "Went to the zoo. I had this really good citrus popsicle that I still remember to this day."

While their family members who still live in Beijing will not be able to watch them due to Covid measures at the Games, Chen and Zhou are returning for a second consecutive Games for Team USA, joined by 2014 Olympian Jason Brown, the veteran of the team at 27.

"There's definitely a unity and a family feel when it comes to the Olympic team," Brown said. "And yeah, getting to do it with [Nathan and Vincent] and with our teammates that we've gotten to travel the world with, we feel really, really lucky."

Chen's Olympic musts: A basketball and guitar

Four years after he struggled to a fifth-place finish at the PyeongChang 2018, Chen wants to be more open to enjoying this Games - and said he already is. Along with Zhou and Brown, training mate and good friend Mariah Bell is making her Olympic debut, as is the ice dance team of Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker, whom Chen says he is close with.

"This time that I have Mariah here and Jean-Luc and Kaitlin, some of my closest friends," the 22-year-old said. "I'm really happy to have some of my closest friends [here]. Even outside of the skating world, if I go, theoretically when I retire, those are still my closest friends. So it's really cool to be able to share a moment like this with them."

"My friends have really helped me stay grounded over the past four years or so. And then now having them [here] in person is really different."

Also along for the journey: An electric guitar and a basketball, which Chen said will help keep his mind occupied as he's not using his phone much.

"I did bring my electric guitar, yeah, though not my acoustic. I'm hoping to [play] soon," he said. "[U.S. ice dancer] Evan Bates is a really amazing guitar player, so I'm sure he'll teach me something."

"It's nice to have something to keep me pre-occupied."

Said Chen of his growth over the last four years from one Olympics to the next: "You know, it's been four years and had a lot of new experiences," the Southern California-based skater said. "It gives you a fresh perspective on just recognising that over course of my career I only have a very limited amount of time on the ice and on in competition and especially at the Olympics. So if I can enjoy it, then what's the point in doing it?"

Chen said he only has one regret from 2018: Not enjoying himself more.

"The fact that I wasn't able to enjoy it, yeah," he said. "I was a kid not really knowing exactly what the Olympics was and just just didn't really didn't have fun with it. And when I look back on that, I don't really have the fondest memories. Coming here, I was like, regardless of how I skate, I want to be able to look back and be like, 'That was a really cool experience.'"

Brown back after eight-year hiatus

While Chen is a three-time world champion and Zhou won the bronze medal in 2019, Brown lacks the big jumps of the top, top skaters in the world, instead relying on the artistry, consistency and skating skills that have helped him to four top 10 finishes at worlds and nine Grand Prix medals.

Having moved to Toronto in 2018 to train with two-time Olympic medallist Brian Orser and Tracy Wilson after failing to make the Olympics, Brown said that making the choice for change was something he now feels empowered by as he approaches his second Games.

"I think as you get older, you kind of start to learn that you have choices that you can make and you can choose the trajectory that you go on or the path that you take," Brown explained. "I think one of the really neat things in the last four years that Tracy and Bryant have allowed me do is to make those choices and learn from myself and speak up for myself and allow... all the good and bad that comes with that."

He continued: "The feeling that and owning that and navigating that. So I feel very fortunate about that. But it's been really exciting and very fulfilling and very rewarding."

For Zhou it's a second consecutive Games, and he says he feels especially at home in Beijing as both of his parents were born here, and it's the place that his grandparents still live.

"I feel very much at home here," he said.

China rang in the Lunar New Year on 1 February, marking the Year of the Tiger.

"[That] brings a little extra significance to my free skate, which is Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," Zhou said. "Now it's the Year of the Tiger, and I was born in the year of the Dragon, so that's perfect, you know?"