15-year-old Karen Chen dreams of an Olympic gold medal someday. (Photo : www.chinasportsbeat.com)
15-year-old figure skating bronze medalist Karen Chen is set to go to Estonia for the Junior World Championship which will be held in three weeks.
Excited as she may, Chen admits that her true goal is the Winter Olympic Games when she turns 18 three years from now. Chen confides that although it is already a great honor to participate in such competition as the Olympics, she is aspiring to win a gold medal.
Chen is seen as a U.S. figure skating star. Born of Chinese-American descent, Chen said that since she was six, she already realized that her passion is on ice. More than the challenge of competing, Chen admits being on ice makes her very happy.
Chen's mother Hsiuhui Tseng recalls how happy Chen was in her early years, everytime she skated on ice and performed in front of people. Usually a shy person, the moment she steps on ice, Chen is immediately transformed into a confident ice skater.
Chen's parents decided that it would be better for their daughter to train professionally. Although the leap to being America's next skating queen certainly did not prepare them.
Chen is currently training in Southern California's Riverside, far from Hayward where she lives, because the Riverside rink allows her to skate 1.5 hours in the morning and 1.5 hours in the afternoon.
Chen hopes to improve her skills for her performance in junior world championships.
"But it's going to be tough," she added.
Chen has been skating since she was four years old and has a lot of experience in regional and national-level skating competitions. She won the U.S. Novice Ladies title in 2012.
In order to be able to focus on her skating, Chen has been attending online public school instead of a regular school. She said it makes her schedule more flexible. Although she misses the school life and her dozens of friends, Chen says she prefer home online schooling because it is much more efficient for her.
Aside from the support coming from her family, Chen also gets support from 1992 Olympic champion Kristi Yamaguchi who has been mentoring her since 2012.
