BEIJING, China — On Saturday night Karen Chen will hit the ice to represent Team USA in the women's short program portion of the team figure skating event.
Just a couple nights prior, Nathan Chen put in a stellar score for the team in the men's short skate.
Two great American Olympians, sharing a last name, raises the natural question? Are they at all related?
(We saw a version of this question come up during the Summer Olympics too, as it happens.)
We'll save you any further suspense: Nope! No relation. None whatsoever.
Nathan Chen was born in Salt Lake City, Utah and he spent his youth there, graduating from West High School in Salt Lake City. His parents are from China, and he has spoken of how being in Beijing for the 2022 Winter Olympics has revived memories of childhood trips to China.
"I remember going to the Beijing Zoo. So, like every time when we're driving from the (Olympic) Village here, I see the Beijing Zoo and am like, ‘Oh, I was here when I was 10,'" he told Reuters this week. "So, it's kind of cool to be able to see that. Also just hear stories from my mom growing up in Beijing and being like, ‘Wow, you know, I'm here.'"
Karen Chen, meanwhile, is from Northern California, sharing a hometown of Fremont in the San Francisco Bay Area with former Olympic champion Kristi Yamaguchi, who has been an important mentor for her.
A crucial difference in the backgrounds of Karen Chen and Nathan Cen is that Karen Chen's parents are from Taiwan, which has a complicated relationship with the Chinese mainland.
Taiwan, an island about 100 miles from mainland China, is autonomous and recognized as an independent nation by several countries, but the Chinese government maintains a claim on it as a historical territory of China.
The U.S. has historically had a close relationship with Taiwan, but it is an unofficial one thanks to a 1979 treaty that saw the U.S. first formally recognize the communist government in Beijing.
That treaty, according to the State Department, acknowledges "the Chinese position that there is but one China and Taiwan is part of China."
