Karen Chen

Chen's mentor is 1992 Olympic Champion Kristi Yamaguchi, who shares a hometown with her.

Karen Chen (born August 16, 1999) is an American figure skater.

She is a 2022 Olympic Games team event gold medalist, two-time CS U.S. Classic bronze medalist (2016, 2017), the 2015 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb bronze medalist, the 2017 U.S. national champion, 2022 U.S. national silver medalist, and a three-time U.S. national bronze medalist (2015, 2018, 2021).

She is currently a student at Cornell University.

Karen Chen was born on August 16, 1999, in Fremont, California, to Hsiu-Hui Tseng and Chih-Hsiu Chen.

Her parents moved to the United States from Taiwan.

She has a younger brother, Jeffrey, who also competes for the U.S. in ice dance.

She was homeschooled via Connections Academy in high school.

Chen has expressed interest in majoring in the medical field.

Chen began learning to skate in 2005.

She won gold on the national intermediate level in 2011 and then gold competing as a novice in 2012.

Earlier in her career, she won four medals on the ISU Junior Grand Prix series, including gold at the 2013 JGP Slovakia.

The following season, she competed on the junior level at the 2013 U.S. Championships, placing fourth.

She made her international debut at the 2013 Gardena Spring Trophy, where she won gold on the novice level.

In the 2013–14 season, Chen received her first ISU Junior Grand Prix (JGP) assignments.

She won bronze in Riga, Latvia, followed by gold in Košice, Slovakia, and qualified for the JGP Final.

While practicing a triple Lutz, she sustained a type three tibia fracture in her right ankle.

The injury led her to withdraw from the JGP Final.

Chen spent four weeks on crutches and resumed training in mid-December.

She withdrew from the junior event at the 2014 U.S. Championships after placing fifth in the short program.

At the 2014 World Junior Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria, she placed sixth in the short program, ninth in the free skate, and ninth overall.

In the 2014–15 JGP series, Chen won bronze at Czech Skate and silver at the Croatia Cup, respectively.

She was awarded the bronze medal in her senior national debut at the 2015 U.S. Championships, behind Ashley Wagner and Gracie Gold.

Chen was not old enough to compete at the 2015 World Figure Skating Championships and was instead assigned to the 2015 World Junior Figure Skating Championships, where she placed eighth.

Ahead of the season, Chen tried 14 pairs of skate boots.

In September 2015, she finished fourth at the 2015 U.S. International Classic, an ISU Challenger Series (CS) event and her first senior international.

Making her Grand Prix debut, she placed fifth at both the 2015 Skate America and 2015 Cup of China.

She won bronze at her second CS assignment, the 2015 Golden Spin of Zagreb in December and finished 8th at the 2016 U.S. Championships in January.

Chen began her season at the 2016 CS U.S. Classic, placing third behind Japan's Satoko Miyahara and the United States' Mariah Bell.

On the Grand Prix series, Chen achieved a seventh-place finish at 2016 Cup of China and a sixth-place finish at 2016 NHK Trophy.

She has competed at seven ISU Championships, achieving her best result, fourth, at two World Championships (2017, 2021).

Chen published a memoir titled Finding the Edge: My Life on the Ice in November 2017, in which she revealed that she suffers from spondylolisthesis.

Chen enjoys painting and is a fan of the Japanese character Totoro.

Chen won the gold medal at the 2017 U.S. Championships after placing first in both the short program and free skate.

She set a new U.S. record with her short program score of 72.82.

At the 2017 Four Continents Championships, Chen skated to a twelfth-place finish.

Chen also competed at the 2018 Winter Olympics, placing 11th.

She was admitted to Cornell University's School of Human Ecology for the Fall 2019 semester majoring in Human Biology, Health, and Society on a pre-med track.

Chen originally did not plan to take any gap years or defer her education while preparing for the 2022 Winter Olympics, but decided to take a two-year leave of absence after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On 2019 International Women's Day, she was chosen to be one of eight POWERGIRLs that serve as brand ambassadors for social fitness blogger Cassey Ho's activewear company, POPFLEX Active.