New Coach for Chen, New Program for Rippon

Nathan Chen to train with Marina Zueva full time, Adam Rippon makes new long to old show program music.

As the hours creep closer to the start of Skate America, news continues to come in and settle. National Men’s Champion Adam Rippon’s had the skating community buzzing the last few days with the news of his new long program. But earlier this week, the spotlight abruptly shifted to his now former training mate Nathan Chen.

Nathan Chen’s New Coach

When last month Patrick Chan announced he was training with Marina Zueva, there were some raised eyebrows. After all, Zueva was someone who training ice dance teams, not singles skaters. But now she has two of them. During a conference call with the media this week, Patrick Chan spoke of Nathan Chen training there with him, and made it sound like he’s doing so full time. He’d worked with her already, but his main coach had remained Rafael Arutyunyan, who also trains Rippon, and reigning world silver medalist Ashley Wagner. It’s not absolutely confirmed as of Thursday night Chen’s not working with him anymore. But it doesn’t sound like he is.

Since so far we have only heard from Chan, we don’t know why Chen decided to change things. Chan’s also quick to assure everyone he and Chen are getting along well, having fun with their similar sounding last names, and helping push each other to be better. Nonetheless, one worries about Chen with such a coach. He’s not like Chan; his skating and jumping techniques are far from perfect. He may be able to land more quads than anyone else, but one hopes he’s at least also working with a jumping coach of some sort.

On the other hand, if Zueva brings both these two men enough success, she’ll show herself to be an undisputedly capable singles coach. Meanwhile, we will hopefully learn more this weekend. Arutyunyan is in Chicago with Rippon and Wagner, and will no doubt answer questions about this at some point.

Adam Rippon’s New Long Program

Adam Rippon did a conference call last week. In it he revealed that after skating it in two competitions this year, and receiving criticism for it, he decided to discard the long program to Stateless’ “Bloodsteam” he’d prepared for this year. Many a skater, having made such a decision at this hour, would not try to create and learn a whole new long, but would go back to the previous year’s program. Rippon could’ve easily done that too, especially since his Beatles free last year was a popular one. But he instead decided it was early enough to get a new long instead.

However, he didn’t start completely from scratch. His new long combines two pieces: “Arrival of the Birds, by the Cinematic Orchestra and “O” by Coldplay. The latter is music he has recently skated a show program to:

Adapting a show program into a competitive program carries its own risks. The two are very different beasts, with different demands. Also, judges won’t always take such an adaptation seriously. But that he’s combining his original music with another piece suggests his competitive program about birds won’t just be an imitation of his show program on the subject with harder jumps and tricks. Meanwhile, if this new program is half as beautiful as the old one, and he skates it decently, fans should be in for a treat.

Another Withdrawal from Skate America

However, the most recent news is about Japanese skate Daisuke Murakami. Thursday the news broke that he too has withdrawn from Skate America, reportedly due to a foot injury. Though not generally considered to be in the very top tier of men, Murakami has multiple Grand Prix medals, including a gold, and had a serious chance of winning his fourth, especially after Denis Ten withdrew. The men’s field there is now reduced to ten. For the moment Murakami remains on the roster for the Cup of China.

Next: Major Withdrawals Just Before the Grand Prix

Nathan Chen makes his senior Grand Prix debut at the Trophée de France in mid November. With the order of skate drawn, Adam Rippon will close out the men’s short in Chicago on Saturday. Skate America itself begins with the ladies’ short at 8:05 P.M. Eastern Friday.