When Karen Chen booked her flight to Greensboro, North Carolina, for the 2020 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships, she didn't book a return flight back to Ithaca, New York, where she's attending Cornell University.
After a freshman year that saw her struggle to balance school commitments with skating, Chen knew she had some decisions to make.
Her performance in Greensboro gave her even more to think about.
Despite a fall Grand Prix season that saw her finish eighth at Skate America and ninth at NHK Trophy, Chen was able to finish fourth at the U.S. Championships.
"I'm pretty happy with how everything went," Chen said. "Definitely compared to my Grand Prix season, the skates I put out here were much more solid."
A big part of that, she says, is because she spent a few weeks at her old training base in Colorado Springs, Colorado, before heading to Greensboro. Time with coach Tammy Gambill and her training mates in a structured training environment did her good.
"I was just really thankful that I was able to have that solid two or three weeks to train in Colorado before coming here, because I felt like that really made a big difference for me, just having that familiar training environment, familiar people, and obviously my coach there to watch me," Chen said. "I had the training environment that I knew worked for me, and I was able to work with Christy Krall and some of the other coaches there to just kind of help me with my jump technique, and just push me through my run-throughs, and just be there for me. That was pretty great."
Had Chen not had that time dedicated to training, she does not think her U.S. Championships would've gone nearly as well as it did.
With so much in flux – the 2019-20 season was also her comeback season after missing all of 2018-19 with a stress fracture in her foot – Chen came into Greensboro with modest goals.
"I kind of came here with no expectations, because I just felt like I not only thrive when I have no expectations, but also I felt like I really have nothing to lose," Chen said. "I knew that this year was a hard one for me. It was my comeback year, and I was also juggling school, so I knew that it was a hard year. But at the same time, I knew that during the two weeks I had in Colorado, I really trained really hard, and I felt pretty confident. All of my practices were really solid, and I felt ready to go. So I knew that I was going to give it my all."
Chen earned her fourth career senior medal at the U.S. Championships, surprising even herself with what she was able to accomplish with comparatively little training.
"I was honestly a little shocked," she said, laughing. "Because in the past, I felt like I would work all year long just to get on the podium, and only focus on skating to make the podium and make the World Team and get Four Continents.
"And I think that's why, right after this competition, I really had to do a lot of thinking to see what does this mean for the future. Just being realistic with myself, thinking that, 'Okay, what about the Olympics? What about next year? What do I want to do? What is the best decision to make, one that I'm not going to look back on and just feel like I made the wrong decision?'"
Chen's performance did indeed earn her a spot on the U.S. squad for the ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships, held Feb. 4-9 in Seoul.
It also turned out to be very fortuitous that she didn't book a flight back to Ithaca, as she ultimately decided to go back to Colorado to train for the week before she left for Seoul instead of going back to school.
"Four Continents is really important for me, and I really want to do well," Chen said. "And I know that if I throw myself into school this week, I'm going to be very overwhelmed and stressed out, and then going straight from there to Korea. And I just know that I wouldn't be as on the top of my game as I can be if I was training in Colorado."
Therein lies the problem.
Chen knows the environment that would be most beneficial to her skating, and it's not the one she's currently in.
"I knew that juggling school and skating was going to be a challenge, but I felt like I wanted to give it a shot before telling myself that, 'hey, it's hard, I don't think you can do it,'" she said. "So now I know that if I want to succeed in skating, I'm going to have to think about maybe not being full-time, or just deferring. That's definitely on my mind, especially knowing that I was able to improve so much with the two, three weeks that I had in Colorado. That just proves to me that that's the place to be if I want to really be in the best shape possible."
Chen has tried to wash her hands of her Grand Prix season, even switching to an old free skate not associated with the bad memories of her fall competitive slate, and she admits that maybe she could've made better decisions this fall.
"Some of the things I regret a little, knowing that, looking back, I could've done better," she said. "But in the moment, I know that I gave it my all, and I worked really hard, and I did my best. So I can't really say I have any regrets."
Following her pewter medal at the U.S. Championships, Chen heads to Korea hoping to beat her personal best and make a case for her to remain on the Grand Prix circuit next season.
But with two years until the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, Chen is already looking towards the future and knows some big decisions are looming.
"Definitely this year I've been thinking more about (the Olympics), and especially after (U.S. Championships) this year I'm starting to think more about it," Chen said. "Because it's totally doable. It's just a matter of the decisions I make, and how I go about that, and what kind of sacrifices I'm willing to make."
Fans can watch Karen Chen and all of Team USA at the Four Continents Championships live and on-demand with the Figure Skating Pass on NBC Sports Gold.
