--- title: Nathan Chen Breaks Down His 2018 Olympic Free Skate Program | TIME description: Nathan Chen walks us through his record-breaking free skate program that he will be competing at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang. canonical: https://time.com/video/0ZQEg4FT/ og:title: Nathan Chen Breaks Down His 2018 Olympic Free Skate Program og:description: Nathan Chen walks us through his record-breaking free skate program that he will be competing at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang. og:url: https://time.com/video/0ZQEg4FT/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/0ZQEg4FT/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Nathan Chen Breaks Down His 2018 Olympic Free Skate Program twitter:description: Nathan Chen walks us through his record-breaking free skate program that he will be competing at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/0ZQEg4FT/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Nathan Chen Breaks Down His 2018 Olympic Free Skate Program > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-sub-2026q3/newsletters?i=e76cc392-88f7-4b8b-bc5f-78f76dcc4de5&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) * TIME Subscriptions: [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-sub-2026q3/subscribe?i=e76cc392-88f7-4b8b-bc5f-78f76dcc4de5&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Nathan Chen Breaks Down His 2018 Olympic Free Skate Program [Watch (HLS stream): Nathan Chen Breaks Down His 2018 Olympic Free Skate Program](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/0ZQEg4FT.m3u8) (3:42)  _Published 2018-02-01. Nathan Chen walks us through his record-breaking free skate program that he will be competing at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang._ --- Jul 27, 2023 11:26 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [TIME100 | Nathan Chen](/video/I5bamKAl/) ### TIME100 | Nathan Chen [Nathan Chen Finally Gets His Olympic Gold](/video/sa79SqBp/) ### Nathan Chen Finally Gets His Olympic Gold [Meet Team USA: Nathan Chen](/video/eDjD9zLo/) ### Meet Team USA: Nathan Chen --- ## Transcript My long program was actually not my idea. I decided to work with a choreographer named Lori Nicoles, and she had watched this movie called Mao's Last Dancer. [ MUSIC ] We listened to the soundtrack and she fell in love with it immediately. And so she pitched the idea. I realized his story's pretty similar to my parents' story. And I figured that's a cool connection for me and something that I can potentially portray this season through my skating, through my artistry. [ MUSIC ] I'm opening up the program thinking about the first element. The music is very dramatic. The first few seconds of choreography matches the music really well. And it just kinda draws attention and I think. And that's kinda the idea that we were going for there [ SOUND ] [ APPLAUSE ] After that first jump I was See fairly that I hit that. I think it's definitely, if not the hardest, it definitely puts a lot, I use a lot of mental energy to do that jump properly. And so mostly just trying to breathe, trying to relax and then figure out where I need to position myself for the next jump. Because placement of the jump is pretty crucial in terms of doing a successful jump. So this is my second jump Pretty standard I mean it was pretty much exactly as I'd expect it to go. Mostly right now I'm just trying to breathe, trying to relax a little bit around the corner, so that I have energy for this next jump. [ MUSIC ] So spins are a big part of our score as well and we just have to make sure that we get the rotations, the number in. And then also making sure our positioning is correct in terms of, if our leg drops we lose a level. If we don't hold the revolution we lose a level. There's a lot of other little things. [ MUSIC ] That's my footwork section right now. In general It's the best moment where you can express yourself. You can interpret the music the best. The judges can really see cuz it's such a long period of time and the judges can really see how you use your edges, How you are expressing yourself through the movement. So this part mostly is just recovering, resting. At this point in the program I've still got a little more than half gallon of gas in the tank. [ MUSIC ] This is the moment in the movie where he sees his parents, so it's a very touching moment. It's based on a very Modern and American theme, but there's a lot of Chinese influence in the music. You can hear it in the instruments. And then after these next two jumps, it switches completely away from the Chinese aspect. [ APPLAUSE ] The second half of the program, we get an 1. 1 bonus. And so typically we try to backload the end of the program, so that tends to Take away from the program to some extent sometimes. And it kinda decreases our speed, as all the jumps are happening really quickly after each other. [ MUSIC ] Say I miss one of the jumps, there's tons of calculations that have to go in your head as soon as you make a mistake, you are following the guidelines of the rule book. I'm the only skater currently that can do all five quads. And so having that That technical difficulty in my arsenal allows me to manipulate the program however I want during the competition. [ MUSIC ] So at this point, I'm pretty gasp. But it was part of the music, starts building, and it gets really, really powerful, so I have to make sure that I express that. Happiness, but also just sheer power. [ MUSIC ] [ INAUDIBLE ] [ MUSIC ] [ APPLAUSE ] Ultimately, I will only potentially be able to go to like two Olympics in my whole entire life. So really just enjoying that moment, embracing that moment, just feeling the energy from the audience, and just really being present. 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