Nathan Chen exclusive - The Olympic champion has a new title: Author

Strolling through a Midtown Manhattan hotel lobby on a brisk November afternoon, you could mistake Nathan Chen for just another traveler in the city that doesn’t sleep, wrapped in a warm jacket and toting a roller bag along with him.

The Olympic figure skating champion is anything but, however, and on this day he’s added another line to his already golden CV: Published author.

“The book was actually a really great opportunity to force myself to look back and reflect on my career and my life,” Chen told Olympics.com in an exclusive interview. “And also where I came from and all the people that have helped me.”

“It was really cool to think about all the steps that I took to get to the Olympics.”

The book, One Jump at a Time, is a memoir that Chen worked on in tandem with journalist Alice Park, but also has the fingerprints of his entire family on it (he’s one of five kids): “I think a theme of the book is teamwork, and writing this book was certainly teamwork, too. Talking to my parents, talking to the rest of my family about how things [happened] when I was a kid.”

The book (published 22 November) follows Chen from said 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.

Twenty years later Chen is an Olympic champion himself, though his victory at Beijing 2022 came after many learnings from his rocky debut at the Games at PyeongChang 2018, which Chen writes extensively about.

Nathan Chen: Will he compete again?

The book release winds down a life-changing year for the 22-year-old, who returned to his studies at Yale University in the past few months after taking a two-year hiatus to train for the Olympics.

While his focus is fully on school for the time being, he’s not ready to hang up his skates just yet, and has maintained his on-ice time – both for fun and for other commitments. Earlier in November he appeared in the new music video for Elton John’s acoustic release of Hold Me Closer, sung in duet with Britney Spears.

Chen is the centrepiece of the video, skating an original, free-flowing program for the video, filmed at Yale.

But will the five-time world champion and Olympic gold medallist compete again? He’s not sure.

“I think for me to make the decision of continuing competition, it’s going to depend on being able to find the internal passion, the drive,” Chen shared. “I think it's most important to have [that] come from inside me. I spoke about this in the book, but there's so many ups and downs. And if you don't have this internal drive and internal desire to continue pushing forward, it becomes really challenging.”

In short, he won’t make any decisions before finishing school. First, Chen plans to complete his undergraduate degree, which is on track to wrap up midway through 2024.

Nathan Chen: From PyeongChang to Beijing, Olympic learnings

His openness in the book is particularly striking as he takes readers into PyeongChang at his first Olympics, where he finished fifth though he had disappointing short programs in both the team and individual events.

“[PyeongChang] was a really amazing learning experience for me,” he said. “Certainly not the way that I envisioned it would have gone, but without having that experience, I don't think I would have quite been able to grow as much as a person.”

He continued: “Heading into 2022, being able to utilise all the lessons that I'd learned in 2018 was huge for me to be able to be present and really enjoy my experience at the Olympics.”

It was Hanyu Yuzuru who finished with gold in 2018, doubling up after his Sochi 2014 victory. Chen said he’s watched from afar as the Japanese skater has made the transition from competitive skating to focusing on shows and other avenues.

“Everything that Yuzu has done in his career has been spectacular,” Chen said. “And his next steps now are nothing short of that. I'm super honored to have been able to compete against him... and it's just amazing to be able to have experience competing in the same era as Yuzu.”

“It's really exciting to see what he's doing, continuing to reinvent the wheel in his own way and, you know... skating in Japan is very relevant and very, very well loved. I'm glad that he's doing something to continue growing that. I'm really excited to see how he continues along his own path of retirement.”

Nathan Chen – Extended Q&A

Chen spoke in depth about a myriad of topics, including American teenager Ilia Malinin and his quadruple Axel – plus what it felt like to be tapped for an Elton John music video.

See his responses to those questions and more below. The interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Olympics.com: You write in the book a lot about your family and what an integral role they played in your career. Why was it so important to you to focus in on that aspect of your career?

Nathan Chen: I wouldn't have been able to get into skating had it not been for my family. I think it was really important to make sure to highlight all the members of my family and speak a little about my parents, where they came from, what it was like to immigrate to America and raise five kids.

[My siblings and I] all ended up exploring our own passions and exploring things that we had dreams of exploring. We were given the space to do so thanks to the ideals of my parents. I'm just really lucky to be able to have had the ability to continue exploring my dream of skating.

Olympics: You discuss 2018 in depth, but also the many challenges you faced physically through your career, a lot of which had never been discussed in full during your career, is that right?

Chen: I think it was important to emphasize that the trajectory to a goal does not move in just one direction. There's a lot of ups and downs. There's a lot of things that you don't even think might occur, that occur and that you have to deal with and adapt and figure out what the best approach is.

I dealt with a lot of injuries, a lot of physical setbacks, and that caused me to take a lot of time off the ice that I wouldn't have wanted to otherwise. But it really taught me a lot of lessons along the way of how to take care of my body and how to take care of my mind.

I learned to trust my team and trust that they know what they're talking about to get me to the gold at the Olympics There were many things that my team were really good at and... I also had to have the realization that I couldn't do this all by myself.

Nathan Chen: Reflecting on Olympic gold... and Elton John

Olympics: Tell us about the opportunity to skate for the Elton John ‘Hold Me Closer’ music video. How did that come together?

Chen: It's incredible to be able to be a part it. I can't believe Elton would think of me and – more importantly – skating itself, to be a vehicle for his music video. I don't think I've seen figure skating in many music videos, so it's incredible to have Elton John have figure skating be at the forefront in this way.

He gave me a lot of freedom to explore movement figure out what I wanted for the program itself. The idea was really just to have me be on the ice without having something that's ultra-choreographed. It [was about] feeling the music: Whatever the music calls for at that moment, just let that come out. And it was a lot of fun being able to skate like that.

Olympics: When you look back at Beijing and your Olympic experience overall, what comes to mind?

Chen: Some of the things that I remember from the Olympics are the more mundane things like riding the bus or going to the dining hall or walking around the Olympic Village. I think that was my intent going to the Olympics. Of course I have memories of competing, practicing, all those things... you know, but being able to be present at the Games and explore the Olympics was really cool, too.

I would say my enjoyment stems more from just watching past programs that I've done. I used to only watch with the perspective of critiquing [myself]: How can I be better?

But now, being able to actually watch back my programs and just reminisce about how it felt when I was on the ice rather than look at like what I did in particular. Now I can remember the feelings of how I felt before I skated, the feelings that I felt during the skate. All these things are really pleasant to be able to go back to... revisiting those memories.

Nathan Chen on Ilia Malinin, Vera Wang and more

Olympics: Ilia Malinin told us recently that you have been in touch on Instagram DM, congratulating him on his quadruple Axel while also offering advice should he need any. What was your reaction to the quad Axel and how do you think he’s handled his first full senior season so far?

Chen: I'm really impressed with how he's been able to handle moving into the senior level and obviously the quad Axel is super exciting. I love to see that in skating – it's really it's a huge step for the sport.

He had trained in California for a little bit with Raf [Chen’s coach, Rafael Arutunian] when I was there. He's definitely someone to look for in the next couple of years, so I'm really excited to see how he continues growing, continues pushing himself in the sport.

I've always tried to make it as clear as I can that I'm always here for him. If he needs some guidance or some advice... I know he has his team and he knows how to handle himself for sure, but if he ever needs or wants an ear... he can come to me.

MORE: Ilia Malinin takes on history | Exclusive interview

Olympics: When you think of this next generation of skaters coming up, what aspects of how you went about things do you see as so integral to your success?

Chen: It goes back to the book, and I spend a lot of time recognizing the importance of having a strong team around me. There's a lot of things that I'm not very good at, but members of my team are really good at. And so being able to utilize that and communicate openly and try to figure out what the best approach is.

Being super strategic was something that really helped me over the past couple of years. So, I’d tell them to spend time and communicate your goals, communicate what the goals of your team are and see how what the best approach is to bring that all together.

Olympics: How has it been to be back at school? And does it feel different without the mega load of training on the ice, too?

Chen: It's been great to be able to be back on campus. I'm a junior now, so I have about a year and a half left of school, which is really exciting.

I had always planned on setting aside a certain amount of time just to focus on school. And I'm glad I now have the opportunity to just be a college student and join in college festivities and make friends and spend time as a student. I've been really enjoying my time back at school.

Olympics: The designer Vera Wang did your Olympic costumes in both 2018 and 2022. She has a storied history in figure skating herself – and she wrote the foreword in your book. How cool was that for you?

Chen: It was just a huge honor to be able to have Vera, first, be a part of my career, but now also have the foreword in my book. The words that she spoke in the book were very honest and very true to how we approached each other, as well as how we got to know each other, in addition to how our relationship was over the years.

I think she is the only person that I would have wanted to go in this journey with, and so I'm really lucky to be able to have someone like her as part of my story – in a couple of ways.