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Nathan Chen is still hoping the U.S. figure skating team can celebrate their accomplishments.

Chen, a gold medalist in men’s singles at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, said that on an individual basis he was able to generally avoid the doping controversy engulfing 15-year-old Russian skater Kamila Valieva, but it reared its head in their team competition.

“I was fortunately able to mostly bypass it,” Chen told The Post, speaking on behalf of Invisalign. “Being an athlete at the Olympics, you’re there to do what you need to do. You’ve trained for a really long time to have this opportunity to perform. So I think we’re all under the assumption that there will be distractions that come into play and we’re there to do our job and focus on being able to perform as best as we could. That was the general vibe among all the athletes of the U.S.

“Fortunately for the individual men, we competed around the breakthrough. It was separate from us, we weren’t focusing on it.”


  Nathan Chen is still hoping for the U.S. to celebrate their team medal from the 2022 Olympics in Beijing. Getty Images Nathan Chen is still hoping for the U.S. to celebrate their team medal from the 2022 Olympics in Beijing. Getty Images

In the team event, however, the U.S. got second, and the Russian team, which included Valieva, won gold. Due to the doping implications, there wasn’t a medal ceremony at the time — and there still hasn’t been one.

“Unfortunately for my team, we had a really awesome U.S. team and it would’ve been an amazing opportunity to get our medals and we still don’t know what’s happening with that.”

Eight months later, Chen is still hoping for the team to revel in the accomplishment.


  Kamila Valieva tested positive for a banned heart medication during the 2022 Olympics in Beijing. Getty Images Kamila Valieva tested positive for a banned heart medication during the 2022 Olympics in Beijing. Getty Images

“We’re hoping that in the near future we’ll have a better conclusion and understand where we’re going to be,” he said.

Now, the 23-year-old Chen is studying statistics and data science at Yale University. He does plan to hold a “normal” job outside of athletics one day, potentially applying his studies to healthcare.

Regarding his partnership with Invisalign, Chen said, “Growing up, I was never really super confident in my smile, so having this opportunity to partner with Invisalign and get their treatment is huge. I’m really excited to transform my smile. It made total sense for me given I still find myself at the rink, training and performing, and this doesn’t have any conflict with being able to perform.”

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