Month: February 2017

News

Karen Chen wins U.S. skate championship

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Karen Chen probably didn’t see Ashley Wagner giving her a curt nod from the ice, not with her face buried in her hands after another memorable performance at the U.S. figure skating championships.

The three-time champion was focused on warming up for her own performance in the free skate, yet Wagner couldn’t help but acknowledge near-perfection — and the standard she now faced.

Wagner proceeded to lay down her own dramatic program, but it wasn’t enough to overtake Fremont’s 17-year-old Chen. Her elegant short program performed to “On Golden Pond” was followed by a darker, more emotional free skate set to “Jealousy Tango” that made her a surprising first-time national champion.

“I skated such a great short and I was definitely thrilled with it,” Chen said, “so I definitely had some pressure going into the long, thinking I really had a chance at this.”

The bronze medalist two years ago, Chen’s free skate score of 141.40 gave her a 214.22 total, which stood up when Wagner under-rotated a combination and had a final combination spin reduced to a Level 2 in her own program. That left the world silver medalist with a score of 140.84 and a 211.78 composite….[read more]

News

Chen stuns with magical short in Kansas City

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Record-setting performance has youngster on top; Wagner finishes third

Every so often a superb performance comes along that’s so unexpected, it jolts the sport and demands everyone that sees it sit up and take notice.

That’s what happened at the 2017 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Kansas City, Missouri, on Thursday night, when Karen Chen took the ice for her self-choreographed short program, set to music from Dave Gruisin’s On Golden Pond.

Skating with finely balanced delicacy and attack, the 17-year-old opened with a huge triple lutz-triple toe loop combination, closed with a superb layback spin and produced nothing short of magic in between.

“Everything came together. I trained this program over and over,” the soft-spoken Chen said. “It’s such a special program for me, and I’m just happy I was able to pull it all together out there.”…[read more]

News

Chen rebounds from previous hardships in style

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With past struggles in rearview mirror, confident youngster charges forward

Karen Chen had next.

That is how it looked after the 2015 U.S. Championships, as Chen, then 15, stole the show in the free skate and took third overall in her first U.S. championship as a senior, when she was too young to go to senior worlds.

And, if the only performance you’d seen of Chen’s since then was during Thursday’s short program at the 2017 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Kansas City, you would have thought to yourself, “Just what everyone expected.”…[read more]

News

17-year-old Karen Chen asserts herself at U.S. figure skating championships

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KANSAS CITY — The face of U.S. women’s figure skating is beginning to change ever so slightly.

The Ashleys and Gracies and Mirais are still around, saying the most interesting things. But at least for one night, a new kid is on top.

Karen Chen, a 17-year-old Californian who introduced herself to the American skating world with an improbable national bronze medal two years ago, then slipped back into the pack troubled by injuries and skate boot problems, skated exquisitely to win the women’s short program Thursday night at the U.S. national figure skating championships.

She received a score of 72.82 from the judges, the highest ever recorded for a women’s short program at U.S. nationals. That frankly might have been a bit much. Then again, it was the performance of the evening, so you really can’t blame the judges for getting a little exuberant….[read more]