--- title: Olympic Figure Skater Nathan Chen Will Be Heading to Yale description: The Olympic skater and 2018 World Champion has accepted an admissions offer from Yale University in New Haven to join the class of 2022. canonical: https://time.com/5226684/nathan-chen-yale-class-2022/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-04-03T20:18:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-12T09:04:59.359Z og:title: Olympic Figure Skater Nathan Chen Is Officially Heading to Yale in the Fall og:description: Chen isn't letting his pursuit of high scores get in the way of higher education og:url: https://time.com/5226684/nathan-chen-yale-class-2022/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf22578d0e6b23343/698928cd97cdff0b506b473b/nathan-chen-figure-skating.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2816 og:image:height: 1584 og:image:alt: Nathan Chen Olympics og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Olympic Figure Skater Nathan Chen Is Officially Heading to Yale in the Fall twitter:description: Chen isn't letting his pursuit of high scores get in the way of higher education twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf22578d0e6b23343/698928cd97cdff0b506b473b/nathan-chen-figure-skating.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Olympic Figure Skater Nathan Chen Is Officially Heading to Yale in the Fall > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=0ff47ac6-2988-4638-b8b9-de31f201e59f&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Meet Team USA: Nathan Chen [Watch (HLS stream): Meet Team USA: Nathan Chen](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/eDjD9zLo.m3u8) (1:24)  _Published 2018-01-29. Get to know Team USA figure skater Nathan Chen._  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Apr 3, 2018 8:18 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Apr 3, 2018 8:18 PM UTC [Olympic figure skater Nathan Chen](http://time.com/5164155/nathan-chen-long-program-free-skate/) may have just won the World Figure Skating Championships last month, but he has even more big news this week. Chen, who is 18, has accepted a spot in Yale Class of 2022, a representative confirmed Tuesday to TIME. Chen is best known as a master of the ice, setting records and completing as many as [six quad jumps](http://time.com/5164072/nathan-chen-quad-jump-figure-skating/) in competition (although he did [fumble on Olympic ice in his short program](http://time.com/5162283/nathan-chen-olympics-2018-reactions/)). He helped earned his [U.S. team a bronze medal](http://time.com/5138220/team-usa-2018-winter-olympic-medals/) at the [Pyeongchang Winter Olympics](http://time.com/5139367/nathan-chen-figure-skating-olympics-hopeful/) and became the first U.S. winner of the World Championship men’s title [since 2009](http://www.milano2018.com/en/nathan-chen-close-to-the-perfection-wins-the-gold-medal/) when he completed his routine in Milan last month. But Chen clearly isn’t letting his pursuit of high scores get in the way of higher education. Fans first noticed Chen’s future plans when he added “Yale ’22” to his [Instagram bio](https://www.instagram.com/nathanwchen/) over the weekend (admissions letters went out last week). He’s also been busy liking posts shared from the Ivy League university’s account. When he arrives on campus in the fall, he’ll join a [long list](http://www.yalebulldogs.com/olympics/OLYMPICS.WEB.pdf) of other Olympians who’ve attended the New Haven institution, including 2002 skating gold medalist [Sarah Hughes](https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2012/10/12/olympic-skater-returns-to-campus/). While most pursued the Olympics either before or after their undergrad years, Chen appears to be looking to juggle both at once: He has already made it clear that he hopes [to compete in 2022.](https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2018/04/03/figure-skater-nathan-chen-touts-yale-acceptance-on-instagram/) Yale does not have a competitive figure skating team, but students do have a Figure Skating Club. And the on-campus ice rink, known affectionately as “The Whale” for its unique architecture, [is considered](https://www.wired.com/2015/07/worlds-beautiful-hockey-rink-gets-big-upgrade/) one of the world’s most beautiful. Chen is currently training in Florida for the start of the Stars on Ice tour. Hopefully he’ll have time to stock up on dorm bedding before he hits the campus’s hallowed halls this fall. ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] My first memory of the Olympics were probably based around the 2002 olympics. I was home in Salt Lake City with my family watching the men's figure skating event. That was really what drew me to figure skating to start with. Watching those games was something that was really memorable to me. I want you lift up and look a little to your right hand side. At least for the past few seasons I [ MUSIC ] Tend to do a little bit too many jumps. And my coach gets a little nervous sometimes watching me do tons of jumps. And so he wants me to pull it back a little bit, and make sure that every jump that I do is like quality, quality, quality versus tons of quantity. One, two, three. [ MUSIC ] It's brilliant. Even from a very young age, I have put a lot of pressure on myself. I have so much pressure from within that I think that all the external stuff doesn't really bother me that much. I have a lot of expecations upon myself that I have to acheive before I listen to what other people have for me. So I think that's how I'm dealing with the season. [ MUSIC ] I mean, I'm excited to go to the Olympics in general. It's such an honor to be part of that team. I can't wait to be at the Olympic games and hopefully go to the Opening and Closing Ceremonies and just stand with everyone and I think that'd be super cool. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5226684/nathan-chen-yale-class-2022/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5226684/nathan-chen-yale-class-2022/"},"headline":"Olympic Figure Skater Nathan Chen Is Officially Heading to Yale in the Fall","datePublished":"2018-04-03T20:18:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-12T09:04:59.359Z","description":"Chen isn't letting his pursuit of high scores get in the way of higher education","url":"https://time.com/5226684/nathan-chen-yale-class-2022/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Education","Winter Olympics","onetime","2018 Pyeongchang Olympics"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf22578d0e6b23343/698928cd97cdff0b506b473b/nathan-chen-figure-skating.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf22578d0e6b23343/698928cd97cdff0b506b473b/nathan-chen-figure-skating.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Nathan Chen Olympics","caption":"Nathan Chen Olympics","creditText":"Jean Catuffe—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5226684/nathan-chen-yale-class-2022/","name":"Olympic Figure Skater Nathan Chen Is Officially Heading to Yale in the Fall"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Meet Team USA: Nathan Chen","description":"Get to know Team USA figure skater Nathan Chen.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/eDjD9zLo/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2018-01-29T16:02:31.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/eDjD9zLo.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5226684/nathan-chen-yale-class-2022/","duration":"PT1M24S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5226684/nathan-chen-yale-class-2022/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```