Karen Chen's Free Skate Is One other Bumpy Efficiency

Karen Chen, the 2017 U.S. nationwide champion, had been ready to unveil her new costume within the free skate at this Olympics, and it’s gorgeous!

The gown is lavender with a stunning association of Swarovski crystals on each the entrance and the again that catch the sunshine so nicely that it appears as if tiny flashbulbs had been popping. Her mother makes her competition dresses. “It represents our particular bond,” Chen informed me a couple of week earlier than she left for the Video games.

This could possibly be Chen’s farewell skate on the worldwide stage, as she plans to go again to Cornell College within the fall to proceed research as a premedical scholar.

Chen, a 22-year-old from Fremont, Calif., received a silver medal within the staff occasion after skating in each the brief program and free skate. Within the girls’s brief program on Tuesday, nevertheless, she fell on her triple loop and completed a disappointing thirteenth.

On Thursday, within the gown her mom made working 20 hours a day for 4 straight days simply earlier than Karen left for the Olympics, Chen stumbled out of 1 leap and popped one other, and fell on her last leap. It wasn’t the efficiency she had hoped for.

She acquired a rating of 115.82 on her free skate, for a complete rating of 179.93, and is in fifth place total.