Where is Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 Gold Medalist Nathan Chen From?

22-year-old American figure skater Nathan Chen just won his first gold medal at the Beijing Winter Olympics 2022. In fact, he set a world record in his short program event before his golden victory, as well.

Chen stood in the middle of the ice, graciously showing off the American flag, having added to Team USA’s medal tally. Thus, Chen became the subject of adulation for his country and the world.

Naturally, many wondered where the Asian-American figure skater hails from? Here are the answers.

Where is Nathan Chen from?

The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic gold medalist, Nathan Chen, was born in Salt Lake City in the USA in 1999. The Utah-born figure skater was the youngest of his parents’ five children.

Chen was three-years-old when Salt Lake City hosted the Winter Olympics. In fact, it was the last U.S. city to have hosted the Winter Olympics, in 2002. Moreover, that was also the year when Chen put on ice skates for the first time in his life. A young Nathan saw his brothers playing ice hockey and got inspired to put on the skates.

However, his parents are not from the United States of America. Nathan Chen’s parents, Zhidong Chen and Hetty Wang are both Chinese immigrants.

His father Zhidong is from Laibin city in the Guangxi region of China. Similarly, Nathan’s mother Hetty is from China too, hailing from Beijing, where her son won his first gold medal.

Nathan Chen has stated that representation is quite important for him. “To continue seeing faces that kind of look like yours on TV doing really cool things, I think, is still useful to a young kid,” he said.

Chen’s education

Born in Salt Lake City, Nathan Chen attended the West High School in his city. For his high schooling, he went to the Rim of the World High School in California.

Then, the two-time Olympic medalist graduated from the California Connections Academy. Alongside his education, Nathan trained in ballet with the Ballet West Academy in his hometown in Utah. In fact, Chen spent over six years training in ballet.

By the age of 10, Nathan was training two hours a day, six days a week. In fact, he managed to handle gymnastics and ballet classes thrice a week in addition to his ice training.

Chen has always credited his mother for her unwavering support and willingness to take him to and from all his classes, across states and cities. Furthermore, what many do not know is that Nathan Chen is one of the prominent Yalies.

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That’s right, Chen enrolled at Yale University in 2018. There, he is currently majoring in Statistics and Data Science at the Connecticut School. A resident of Jonathan Edwards College, Chen will return to campus later this year.

Hence, with his stellar performance at the Beijing Winter Olympics 2022, Chen has cemented his name in Olympic history.