The Quiet Assassin

Brown said when their flight arrived in San Francisco and they went to baggage claim, “The thing we all were waiting for was this box. ‘OK, is it going to come out?’” It did, and then team leader Lorin Ferrell made sure it was shipped to McFadden in Florida, where she is training for the Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020, which begin in August. It was a belated birthday present for McFadden, who turned 32 on April 21. The winner of 17 Paralympic medals – seven of them gold – averages about 115 miles a week in training, or as her mother, Deborah said, “The distance she runs is equivalent to running back and forth across the United States twice at least in a year. And that’s just the training; that doesn’t count her competitions.” The wear and tear puts a lot of stress on the frame and weakens it in the middle. “So that’s why you really should get a new frame within eight months to a year,” McFadden said. “I’ve been long overdue. You want to have the perfect chair going into the Games.” McFadden, who runs distances on the track from 100 meters to 5,000 meters in the T54 category and also competes in marathons on the road, expected to pick up a new chair in February 2020 after competing in one of the marathon majors in Japan. Then covid hit and the race was cancelled. As the calendar turned from 2020 to 2021, McFadden had to do some emergency repair with epoxy glue. She also was forced to switch to an aluminum frame, which is not as light as the carbon frame. Deborah worked the phones, trying all the angles. Even though the whole package weighed only about 15 pounds, that was still more than the shipping restrictions allowed. “I said to the wheelchair company, ‘Can you break it down into little teeny tiny parts?’” she said. “Which of course, they can’t.” “There’s nobody to blame,” said her daughter, who won six medals in Rio, including four golds. “I’m running out of options. We’re four months away from the Games. We just went to Plan B.” The U.S. figure skating team to the rescue. McFadden reached out to Sherrice Fox, the director of U.S. Paralympic Track and Field, and said, “I need help. What can we do? Is there anybody that’s going over – like, anybody?” The USA diving team was scheduled to compete in a world cup in Tokyo starting April 18, but that was postponed. Another dead end. Then Fox told McFadden that the U.S. figure skating team was not only heading to Japan, they were already on the plane. However, with quarantines tight and sporting events held in a bubble, McFadden worried there might be problems. U.S. Figure Skating enlisted the help of the Japanese figure skating association. After the box holding the frame was shipped from the manufacturer to Osaka, it was allowed to come into the athletes’ hotel. The team carried it to the airport and, and, as a bonus, Deborah said the $200 excess baggage fee was the lowest amount she’d ever paid getting the chair into the U.S.

Chen concludes the season at the World Team Trophy competition starting Thursday in Osaka, Japan. The competition involves the six best figure skating teams of the 2020-21 season — Canada, France, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States. Each team includes two women, two men, one pairs team and one ice dance team.

Chen and Bradie Tennell will represent the women while world three-time world champion Nathan Chen (no relation) leads the men.

Karen Chen heads to Japan three weeks after a clutch performance at the World Championships to help the United States earn a third berth to the Beijing Games in women’s singles.

Chen succeeded in finishing no worse than fourth place after U.S. champion Tennell struggled with a boot issue and was ninth.

Skaters needed a combined total of 13 or fewer points to be eligible for a third spot. Now, a U.S. skater other than Chen or Tennell must confirm the berth in September at the Olympic qualifying event in Oberstdorf, Germany.

Chen had performed a similar feat in 2017 at her first World Championships when taking fourth after American champion Ashley Wagner struggled.

Chen, the daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, has been crucial to the United States’ Olympics fortunes at a time when Asian American and Pacific Islander demonstrations have highlighted racial injustice faced by those communities.

“It has been heartbreaking,” she said. “I just hope that being Asian American and going out chasing my dreams and goals can inspire other people. Maybe shine some light in the darkness that has been around.”

Chen said she does not recall facing racism while growing up in Fremont. She said having 1992 Olympic champion Kristi Yamaguchi as a mentor helped.

“Her being able to accomplish so many things, off the ice as well, gave me hope If she can do it I can do it,” Chen said.

Nathan Chen, the son of Chinese immigrants, was more forceful in speaking with reporters after winning his third consecutive world title.

“I’m disgusted by the amount of hate and violence that has occurred [against] Asian Americans in the U.S. It’s just unacceptable,” he said.

Karen Chen performs best when shutting out the world. So it’s not surprising she is more comfortable discussing her journey back to the ice than political issues.

Chen has enjoyed her first-injury-free season since competing at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games in South Korea where she finished 11th. Chen said she also has solved equipment issues that exacerbated the problems.

“I do think people thought that Karen’s time is over,” Chen said. “I definitely felt that way, too, after the Olympic season.”

Chen said she still wanted to compete but a recurring foot injury stopped her progress. It also took months to find reliable skating boots.

“Honestly, there was a time when I thought, ‘OK, maybe it is a time to move on with my life,” Chen said.

She enrolled in Cornell in 2019 and began life as a young adult while also dabbling in training near campus. Chen said the situation left her conflicted because she did not want to end her career with that frustrating Olympic ranking.

Chen said she learned how important skating was to her while a student.

“That’s when I realized I am addicted to this sport,” Chen said.

Also, figure skaters have a narrow window before it becomes too difficult to compete on the international level because “all these Russian girls and Japanese girls, they are all so young and doing these quads and amazing triples,” Chen said.

Not to mention Richmond’s Alysa Liu, who landed triple axels three years ago to win her first U.S. title at age 13.

Chen took two years off from Cornell to try to qualify for another Winter Games. Afterward, she said she plans to return to the Ivy League school to pursue a major in human development.

Chen said she has enjoyed skating more this go around. She said she was overwhelmed with stress, anxiety and pressure as the 2017 national champion heading into the ’18 Olympic season.

“It was a roller coaster of mental breakdowns,” Chen said.

Chen said she has matured since living away from family at Cornell and now at Colorado Springs, Colorado, where she trains.

“I am skating from my heart and I am skating for myself,” Chen said. “I know there are all these expectations. I know I want to make the Olympic team. But at the end of the day what I care about is how I skate.”

Chen’s ambitions are big for next season. She wants to master a triple axel, a 3 ½ rotation jump that gives her more points. American women also might need to start landing quadruple jumps for any chance of ending an Olympic medal drought that began at the Vancouver Games in 2010.

Chen said she plans to focus on a triple axel after the competition in Japan. She also said it is more difficult to try something so demanding as a young adult.

“When I was younger if my coach said to go do something I would do it,” Chen said. “I didn’t have a brain. Now, if someone says try this, I’m like, ‘Oh, I don’t know. It seems kind of scary.’ ”

Chen said she wants to do land the axel regardless of what it means for her Olympic chances.