Nathan Chen programs

Nathan Chen is an American figure skater who won his first competition in 2003 at age 3.^[1][2] He spent the beginning of his career in Salt Lake City, progressing through the lower levels of U.S. Figure Skating's developmental pipeline^[3] before relocating to Southern California in 2011.^[4] His first basic skills and pre-preliminary competition programs^{[note 1]} as a young skater were set to instrumental versions of Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah and Three Blind Mice.^[6] Chen qualified for his first U.S. Junior Figure Skating Championships in 2007 and rose through the juvenile and intermediate ranks between 2007 and 2009. A recording of his early 2007 exhibition performance to "I Just Can't Wait to Be King" from The Lion King resurfaced before the 2018 Winter Olympics.^[7][8] Chen made it to his first U.S. Figure Skating Championships in 2010 where, at 10 years old, he became the youngest novice champion in history, skating to music from Kung Fu Panda and Peter and the Wolf. At the end of the championships, he was featured in NBC's coverage of the exhibition gala^[9] and was later chosen as the ABC Person of the Week.^[10]

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Nathan Chen
Chen at 2018 Internationaux de France
Nathan Chen article series
Career achievements (Awards Competition results) List of programs

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During his junior years, Chen performed to music from the Godfather soundtrack, Praeludium and Allegro, The Four Seasons, Michael Jackson, Glenn Miller and George Gershwin. He won the national junior title twice (2012, 2014) and the ISU Junior Grand Prix Final in 2015. Throughout the span of his senior career, Chen explored a plethora of musical genres, performing to classical works from Le Corsaire, Mao's Last Dancer, Prince Igor, Mozart, songs from avant-garde artists like Benjamin Clementine, piano pieces from Philip Glass, and music from the Desperado soundtrack. In the 2019–20 season, Chen skated to Armenian artist Charles Aznavour's "La Bohème" and music from the Elton John biopic Rocketman. Chen later decided to return to these two programs for the 2021–22 Olympic season^[11] where his win at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing earned him a congratulatory shoutout from John. In November 2022, Chen starred in the official music video for the acoustic version of "Hold Me Closer" by John and Britney Spears.^[12] Between his senior debut in 2016 until his gold medal win in Beijing, Chen also won six U.S. titles, three world championships, and three Grand Prix Final titles,^[13][14] and broke national and world records multiple times.^[15]