In return to Yale, Nathan Chen goes back to his future

The spotlight is on Nathan Chen during a Stars on Ice group number. (Olga Trofimova photo)

When Nathan Chen returns to Yale late this summer after a two-year leave of absence, his housing arrangement will make Chen think he is going back to the future.

“I feel like I’m a returning first-year,” said Chen, actually a rising junior.

He has a room on Yale’s Old Campus, where the residence halls are primarily occupied by first-year students. It is where he lived the first time around after matriculating in the 2018-19 academic year.

The difference this time is Chen also wants to feel present on campus in a way he could not during his first two years of college, when he jammed studies and an international figure skating career into days that seemed too short.

He wants to find a fun extracurricular activity or two that aren’t related to skating. He wants to take guitar lessons.

Chen, majoring in statistics and data science, wants to focus more on his classes, to “make sure the learning is truly, truly ingrained in me rather than trying to get quickly through it, just doing well enough to get through exams.”

And, Chen added, he would also like to be more engaged with other students.

“Making friends,” he said. “I didn’t get too much of a chance to do that.”

That is why he wanted to live on campus again even though, at 23, he will be five years older than many of the students in rooms near him. His original class, Yale ’22, is graduating this week.

And it is why the reigning Olympic champion is unlikely to compete during his final two years at Yale (and perhaps ever again), even as he says his skating future remains uncertain. He does expect to skate “more days than not,” but he said that likely will be mainly on public sessions at the Yale rink.

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