Nathan Chen's housing situation will make him think he's returning to the future when he returns to Yale early this month following a two-year leave of absence.

Chen, a rising junior, stated, "I feel like a returning first-year."

On Yale's Old Campus, he has a room in the residential halls inhabited mainly by first-year students. It's where he lived after going to college in the 2018-19 scholastic year for the first time. Chen wants to be present on campus in a manner he couldn't get in his first two years of college while cramming academics and a worldwide figure skating profession into days it seemed too short.

He'd like to participate in one or two fun extracurricular activities unrelated to skating. He wants to learn to play the guitar. Chen, a numbers and data science major, tries to focus on more than just his classes to "ensure that the material is truly engrained within me rather than attempting to get through it quickly, just performing well enough to pass examinations."

Chen also said he would like to be more involved with other pupils. "I'm making pals," he explained. "I didn't get a lot of opportunities to do it."

That is why, although he will be significantly older than most of the youngsters in his dorm, he decided to live in school again. Yale '22, his first-class, is graduating this week.

And it's why, despite saying his skating future is unknown, the defending Olympic champion is doubtful to compete during his remaining two years at Yale (or possibly ever again). He expects to skate "more days than not" but said it would most likely be during the Yale rink's public sessions.

When asked if he thought he'd participate next season, which starts in the fall, Chen said, "I don't think next season." When asked if he thought he'd contest once more after graduation, he answered, "I have no idea." I'm pretty pleased with what I've accomplished."

With just an Olympic solo gold medal, two International team competition gold, three world championships, six consecutive national titles, and historic leaping achievements, who wouldn't be?

Chen has been so preoccupied with his thread life, mainly as a celebrities talk show visitor, then with Celebrities on Ice in Japan, and now as the main event of the Stars on Ice U.S. tour, which runs by May 29, that he hasn't had much chance to ponder about anything other than the next day's schedule.

(After Chen contracted Covid, there's also unexpected five-day confinement on Long Island, New York.) He did not miss any gigs because the tour dates were almost all on weekends, but he could not compete in the 2021 and 2022 U.S. Olympic Games.

Chen stated he has yet to speak with U.S. Speed Skating about whether he wants to be evaluated for this year's Grand Prix Series when speaking through FaceTime last Friday, well before the Stars concert in Grand Rapids, Michigan. According to two USFS officials, the timeframe for athletes to notify the organization has yet to be determined.

Chen also revealed that he had not spoken to his trainer, Rafael Arutunian, since the Olympics.

"It'll be nice to chat to Raf after Stars on Skating is overseeing what he wants, what I feel, what my parents believe, what my family says – and then move from there," Chen added.

Chen will have a month after Stars to prepare for his following skating commitment, four "Dreams on Ice" performances in Yokohama, Japan, in early July. In late July, he'll return to Japan for "The Ice," a nine-show, three-city tour. His second significant summer activity is a trip to Hawaii alongside his parents and four siblings, including the one who, Tony, resides on Oahu.

"We've never taken a vacation as a family," Chen explained.

Since Chen decided to work with Arutunian in southern California 12 years ago, he and his mother, Hetty Wang, have lived except for their family base in Salt Lake City. When he moves out at the end of the season, they would no longer have a California address.

I can go down to stay with Mariah (Bell) or Michal Brezina if something happens and I want to train in California," he stated. "It would only be for a few weeks during (school) vacations."

Chen mostly used video conferences to bridge the 3,000-mile gap to Arutunian throughout his first two years of college. For the past two seasons, he has returned to California to focus entirely on skating.

Chen stated that his Star on Ice experience as Olympic champion was similar to what he had four years prior when he finished third in the 2018 Olympics.

"I'm a little later in the video," he said, referring to the tour's recognition of his growing prominence.

He performs two solo routines, one set to Elton John's music, which he utilized in his Championship free skate. Chen received a shout-out from John during the Stars on Ice cast's visit to his show in Greensboro, North Carolina, last month.

"It meant to me that he chose my song," John stated.

"That was insane," Chen remarked of John's admission.

Among the other benefits of earning gold, Chen just received an electric guitar from Paul Reed Smith, a renowned guitar maker. ("One of their employees, a figure skater, noticed my interest in guitar and contacted out to see if I wanted one of theirs," Chen explained.)