Some skaters are known to be short program skaters and others are known for their free skates. A select few consistently package together a pair of strong routines. For Karen Chen, she places a lot of emphasis on executing a solid short program to start off with a competitive edge on the scoreboard leading into the second day of competition.
 
"I put a lot of pressure on my short program because it's what sets you up for the long and people admit you can't win the short, but you can lose because of your short," she said.
 
To get Chen into that fighting mode for the 2020-21 season, she selected Katy Perry's track titled "Rise" because she finds "the lyrics so inspiring and empowering." For her free skate, the 2017 U.S. champion is skating to "Butterfly Lover Concerto" by Takako Nishizaki.

"It's basically a Chinese version of Romeo and Juliet and so it's pretty iconic and I knew that I wanted to try to skate to this piece of music and really portray the characters," she said. "I've always thought that my short and my long should be different. They shouldn't have the same style."
 
Chen loves this routine so much, she may decide to keep it for next year's Olympic season, but it's still too premature to commit to that. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there are fewer competitions for skaters to perform each of their routines at this year and the choreography process was a bit out of the ordinary too. Chen worked with her choreographers over Zoom to assemble her two routines. It was challenging because it was their first time working together and also their first time choreographing virtually.
 
"[It was] definitely a bit of a struggle in the beginning, but through a lot of communication and meetings and just talking things out, we were really able to figure things out," she said.
 
With the 2020 Guaranteed Rate Skate America being her only Grand Prix competition this year, Chen is already thinking ahead to setting herself up for success at the 2021 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships in January. The competition was due to take place in San Jose, California, but has been relocated to The Orleans Arena in Las Vegas to recreate the same bubble that was put in place during Skate America®.
 
By the time January comes around and she takes the national stage, Chen hopes to debut the triple Axel she's been hard at work on in practice. Fellow American skaters Amber Glenn and Alysa Liu already have the triple Axel under their belts, with several other skaters feverishly working to master the difficult jump. Landing the triple Axel at the U.S. Championships would undoubtedly be a game changer in Chen's career.
 
"I've been able to do it really consistently on the harness, but it's off the harness that's a bit of a challenge," she said. "I think the triple Axel is definitely doable and once I get that, then we'll start thinking about quads. I just don't want to get too far ahead of myself. I want to stay in the moment and achieve one thing at a time."
 
Chen is very goal-oriented headed into the remainder of the season. She is also working on continuing to improve the consistency of her jumps, fine tuning her routines, polishing each movement and her musicality. At Skate America® where she finished in fourth place, Chen was disappointed for making a costly mistake on her triple loop in the long program, a jump she said she can normally rely on. Her coach Tammy Gambill reassured her she "was very happy with everything that I put out and she was proud of me."
 
Since Skate America®, Chen has returned to her training site in Colorado Springs, Colorado, alongside fellow Team USA athletes including Skate America® silver and bronze medalists Bradie Tennell and Audrey Shin, respectively, and competitors Pooja Kalyan and Paige Rydberg. She also trains with some leading men – Camden Pulkinen, Tomoki Hiwatashi and Vincent Zhou.
 
"I [used to] train in Riverside where there was literally no one and it was just me and my coach Tammy and I really liked that environment," Chen said. "After coming to train in Colorado Springs, I started adapting to the training environment there and it also just grew on me. I really like having those elite training sessions with so many of the top, top skaters. And we kind of just all motivate each other. I think it's something that is really great for all of us."
 
Chen was very excited to return to the ice in Colorado after the rink had been closed for two months due to the pandemic. She spent those two months with her mom and brother, Jeffrey, in Michigan, where her brother trains as a junior-level ice dancer with partner Katarina Wolfkostin. The siblings enjoyed playing "Just Dance" on Nintendo Switch as a workout. Chen also remained very busy remotely completing her freshman year of classes at Cornell University. She has since decided to take a leave of absence from college to focus on skating.
 
Although Chen has never been big on birthdays, she did reach a milestone birthday – her 21st – in August. She celebrated at home in Colorado with her boyfriend and a cake. Her family in Michigan joined via Zoom. Once it is safer to travel on vacations, Chen would like to plan her first trip to Hawaii to celebrate.

Chen will participate in this weekend's Las Vegas Invitational presented by HomeLight as part of Team Johnny [Weir], airing on NBC on Sunday, Nov. 15, from 4-6 p.m. ET. She and her teammates will compete against Team Tara [Lipinski] for $50,000 in prize money.