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]
Karen Chen - a Figure Skater 
I just happened to catch Karen’s performance at the World Championships while I was flipping through channels, and I was spellbound. I’m a 35 year old mom of two special needs kids and my life is pretty void of art at the moment. The performance (she was wearing white) truly took my breath away. So thank you for that. We all need art and beauty in our lives.
Indeed!! Thanks! 🙂
Congrats on the really high score at Worlds! Sharks Ice skaters are proud of you! 😀