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Who is Nathan Chen? Internet finds its Winter Olympics hero as video of skater at 3 goes viral

Three-time world champion and Olympic bronze medallist highlighted by NBC in old video from Salt Lake City practice rink

With the 2022 Winter Olympics now just a day away, NBC has begun highlighting some of Team USA's athletes on social media. On February 3, 2022, the NBC Olympics Twitter account uploaded an old video of figure skater Nathan Chen, which immediately went viral. Featuring Chen skating as a three-year-old, social media was surprised, and awed by Chen's talents even as a young child.

The 2022 games are currently taking place under a cloud of controversy, with the US leading a diplomatic boycott because of the host China. However, there's also plenty of good news to come from the games. In January, Speed Skater Brittany Bowe made waves after handing over her slot to teammate Erin Jackson after Jackson slipped at the trials. Another skater, Timothy LeDuc will become the first openly non-binary athlete at the Winter Olympics. 

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With America's skaters clearly dominating the news heading into the Beijing games, it should come as little surprise that another one is making waves online. Here's everything we know about Nathan Chen, and his rise to Olympic glory.

Who is Nathan Chen?

Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, Chen is an American figure skater with multiple records and awards to his name. He is a three-time World Champion (2018, 2019, 2021), Olympic bronze medallist (2018), and six-time US national champion (from 2017–22). In fact, since his 2018 Winter Olympics appearance, Chen has won every single competition he participated in until October 2021.

Since 2018, Chen has also been studying at Yale University majoring in Statistics and Data Science. So he's not just a highly successful Olympic athlete, but also juggling a full-time education as well. Chen has also tried his hand at several other areas, including gymnastics at the state and regional levels. He's also trained in ballet from the Ballet West Academy but ultimately chose figure skating as his calling. 

The son of Chinese immigrants, it should come as little surprise that Chen's had such success on the rink. In fact, some could say he was born to skate, based on the video NBC Olympics just uploaded. In the video, a three-year-old Chen is seen skating at the practice facility in Salt Lake City, and it's definitely worth watching - 

According to his website, that effort was Chen's first time on the rink, after seeing his two older brothers play ice hockey. He also has two older sisters who are figure skaters as well, so it is clear that the Chen family has an affinity for the rink. However, Chen doesn't view skating as his career. In October 2021, he told The Guardian skating was "just a passion project for me," and noted, "At some point, I will have to take a step away from skating."

But for now, Chen is clearly focused on the 2022 games. he made his debut at the 2018 PyeongChang games, where he finished fifth in the free skate segment to grab a bronze. He now hopes to better that record in Beijing, for which he's reportedly taken a break from university. Whatever success he's achieved today though, can all be traced back to that one effort as a three-year-old.

The video quickly went viral, racking up over 30K views and over 100 retweets. Many social media users were left extremely impressed, responding with comments like "Was the jump required or just cause it was fun? The smile made it hard to determine!! Nailed it either way!! Good Luck! Team USA!" and "Omg he’s so adorable." Other replies included "amazing" and "too cute."

If you want to watch Chen in action, the figure skating events are scheduled to begin on February 4 (February 3 night in the USA). You can find out the exact timings from NBC's website, and stream the games via NBC or on Peacock.