It was summer instead of winter – and France instead of China – but figure skater Karen Chen ’23 finally had an Olympic gold medal draped around her neck.
The College of Human Ecology student – who took time off from her studies to train for the Games and is now a rising senior – had initially won silver in the team competition at the Beijing Olympics in February 2022.
But the medal ceremony was postponed due to doping allegations involving one of the skaters on the first-place Russian squad. After an inquiry that took nearly two years, Chen and her teammates were retroactively awarded gold in early 2024.
Karen Chen ’23 poses with her gold medal from the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing in front of the Eiffel Tower at this summer’s Paris Olympics.
Of course, the delay meant that Team USA missed out on the cherished experience of receiving their medals amid raised flags and the playing of the national anthem. But the 2024 Paris Games offered an opportunity for Chen and her eight fellow skaters to be ceremonially honored, with the whole world watching.
“It felt really amazing to receive our medals under the Eiffel Tower,” Chen said from Paris. “Although having to wait 2 ½ years for this moment was not fun, it made this experience so much more unique and special for all of us.”
And looking on the bright side, Chen said that if the medals had been awarded in 2022, the celebration would have been muted by pandemic restrictions. “I feel really thankful that I got to be a part of this,” she said, “and that my family was able to be there with me.”
The 2017 U.S. senior ladies’ national champion, Chen first ventured onto the ice at age 4 and began competing at 6. She won the national championships in two divisions (intermediate and novice) before taking the senior title.
Chen finished 11th at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea.
Now majoring in human biology, health, and society, Chen is planning for a career in physical therapy – “something that I had a lot of experience in as an athlete who went through several injuries.”
And while she is no longer competing at the international level, she has retained her passion for the ice, currently serving as co-president of the .
“I hope to grow the skating community in Ithaca,” she said, “as well as our competitiveness in collegiate competitions.”
The elder child of Taiwanese immigrants, Chen was born in the San Francisco Bay Area city of Fremont – also the hometown of Olympic gold medalist Kristi Yamaguchi, one of her idols.
Ask Chen to name her highlights, and she’ll mention not just winning championships and competing on Olympic ice, but something that’s close to Cornellian hearts: skating at Lynah Rink. In 2020, she performed one of her exhibition programs between periods of a game against St. Lawrence in front of the Lynah Faithful.
“I’ve done a lot of shows,” she said, “but the energy was incredible. I thought hockey fans and college students might think figure skating is dumb, but as soon as I got on the ice they were cheering so loudly for everything I did. It felt amazing. That was an experience I’ll never forget.”
.
Beth Saulnier is editor-in-chief of Cornellians.
