Imagine being the talk of the sport, more specifically figure skating. Within the past few years, you have helped shape modern figure skating. Before you, skaters thought twice before adding multiple quads in their program but you changed that now. After you landed five beautiful quads, you pushed the world’s finest skaters to do the same. Not only that, your incredible talent in the sport has made you almost undefeatable this season and now you are once again the national champion for figure skating. All eyes are on you now. You are the gold medal favorite for the Olympics and if you mess up, disappointment will rise from your praise. Yes, this is none other than Nathan Chen. He is only eighteen years old and he has revolutionized figure skating. I have always loved the Olympics, especially figure skating and Nathan Chen is probably one of my favorite figure skaters. When he stepped onto the ice for the team event, he did something no one expected him to do: he fell and messed up on the other jumps. It was shocking. For a moment, I wasn’t sure if I was watching Nathan Chen. Even though he had done one of his worst short programs, he got right back up and told everyone that he would correct his mistakes for the individual event. A week later, I was ready to see my Nathan back but I was shocked, once again. Nathan not only fell on all his jumps, he also seemed like he wasn’t present when he was skating. After that program, he wound up in seventeenth place, a spot no one ever imagined him to be in. When he saw his score, I could just see the heartbreak, the disappointment, and the confusion on his face. In fact, I was ready to fly to South Korea to give him a hug and tell him it is okay. Nathan had just twenty four hours to get himself together to possibly redeem himself. At this point, getting a medal seemed impossible. As I watched him step onto the ice, my heart was pounding. This was the last time he was going to skate at this Olympics and I honestly just wanted him to have a good skate. Every time he was about to do a quad, my heart stopped. I was so scared he was going to fall but this young man is made of steel. He did five quads and skated with such grace but he didn’t stop surprising everyone. He ended up doing a sixth quad and I was just astonished. Not only is he the first person to ever do five quads, he was the first to do six. I am not going to lie. That free skate moved me to tears because I knew how much he struggled at this Olympics. He reminded everyone why he is the quad king and why he was the gold medal favorite. To grow from a disastrous score to a personal best, he made history! Though he was short from the podium, I cannot tell you how proud I am of him. To do what he just did at eighteen is amazing! I am sharing his story because we can all learn a lot from this teenager. He reminded everyone that giving up is not an option. Next time when I experience adversity, I am going to remember what Nathan Chen did. He may have not gotten the gold medal but he sure did inspire millions to never give up on their dreams.
