Our Clients:

Field Level Media - Professional sports content solutions | FLM

Aug 8, 2025 10:22 am

Nathan Chen won’t defend skating gold at 2026 Winter Olympics

nathan chen skates
Photo by: Robert Deutsch-Imagn Images

Nathan Chen, who won the gold medal in men’s figure skating in the 2022 Winter Olympics, will not defend his title in Italy in 2026.

He confirmed to the Los Angeles Times in an article published Friday that while he has not officially retired from skating, it’s time to move on.

“I just want to open doors to kind of see what’s the best sort of approach for me,” Chen told the Times. “And frankly, at this point in time in my life, I’ve already accomplished enough in skating that I’m quite satisfied with my career.”

The reigning Olympic champion has not skated competitively since Feb. 10, 2022, when he landed five clean quadruple jumps to become the seventh U.S. man — and first since 2010 — to win a figure skating singles gold medal. He also won gold in the team event for the United States.

Chen, 26, won three world championships and six U.S. titles.

Chen, raised in Salt Lake City, enrolled at Yale in 2018 and took a leave of absence to train for the Beijing Games. Later in 2022, he returned to Yale and received his degree in statistics and data science. While in school, he worked in the research lab at Yale School of Medicine and received a research grant from the American Heart Association.

He told the Times he plans to attend medical school and pursue a career in cardiology or oncology and their relationship to genetics.

He has kept his feet in skating over the past few years, appearing in exhibitions and being a leader at skating camps for youths.

With Chen out of the games at Milano Cortina, 20-year-old American Ilia Malinin becomes the favorite to win the gold medal at the Winter Games. He is the back-to-back world champion.

At the U.S. International Classic in Lake Placid, N.Y., in September 2022, Malinin landed the first clean, fully rotated quadruple Axel in figure skating competition history.

–Field Level Media

You may also like

Taxiltaridis
Aug 24, 2025 1:53 pm

Taiwan wins 18th LLBWS championship with shutout of Nevada

Lin Chin-Tse tossed five innings of one-hit ball and knocked in three runs, and Taiwan won the 2025 Little League Baseball World Series with a 7-0 victory over the U.S….

Gallegos
Aug 23, 2025 8:58 pm

Nevada and Taiwan prevail, will meet for LLBWS championship Sunday

The teams from Taiwan and Las Vegas, Nev. won the International and United States brackets, respectively, and will meet for the Little League Baseball World Series title on Sunday in…

ron turcotte
Aug 22, 2025 6:04 pm

Secretariat’s Triple Crown jockey Ron Turcotte dies at 84

Ron Turcotte, the Hall of Fame jockey who rode Secretariat to the 1973 Triple Crown, passed away at age 84 on Friday. Turcotte died of natural causes at his home…

More Other News

Taxiltaridis
Aug 24, 2025 1:53 pm

Taiwan wins 18th LLBWS championship with shutout of Nevada

Lin Chin-Tse tossed five innings of one-hit ball and knocked in three runs, and Taiwan won the 2025 Little League Baseball World Series with a 7-0 victory over the U.S….

Gallegos
Aug 23, 2025 8:58 pm

Nevada and Taiwan prevail, will meet for LLBWS championship Sunday

ron turcotte
Aug 22, 2025 6:04 pm

Secretariat’s Triple Crown jockey Ron Turcotte dies at 84

Little League World Series
Aug 21, 2025 6:45 pm

Aruba holds off Venezuela to advance to International title game

Little League World Series
Aug 20, 2025 6:32 pm

LLBWS roundup: Connecticut, Taiwan advance to respective finals

Read all
fb-post
advertisment
title-icon

Upcoming events

See all odds
[gs-fb-comments]