Karen Chen, the 2017 U.S. national champion, had been waiting to unveil her new costume in the free skate at this Olympics, and it is stunning!
The dress is lavender with a dazzling arrangement of Swarovski crystals on both the front and the back that catch the light so well that it looks as if tiny flashbulbs were popping. Her mother makes her competition dresses. “It represents our special bond,” Chen told me about a week before she left for the Games.
This could be Chen’s farewell skate on the international stage, as she plans to head back to Cornell University in the fall to continue studies as a premedical student.
Chen, a 22-year-old from Fremont, Calif., won a silver medal in the team event after skating in both the short program and free skate. In the women’s short program on Tuesday, however, she fell on her triple loop and finished a disappointing 13th.
On Thursday, in the dress her mother made working 20 hours a day for four straight days just before Karen left for the Olympics, Chen stumbled out of one jump and popped another, and fell on her final jump. It wasn’t the performance she had hoped for.
She received a score of 115.82 on her free skate, for a total score of 179.93, and is in fifth place overall.
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