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Olympic figure skater Karen Chen says her mom designed her costume with a hidden detail that pays tribute to her free skate

Samantha Grindell   

Olympic figure skater Karen Chen says her mom designed her costume with a hidden detail that pays tribute to her free skate
Thelife2 min read
  • American figure skater Karen Chen is competing at the Beijing Olympics.
  • Chen says her mother makes her costumes.

There's more to Karen Chen's free skate costume than meets the eye, as she shared in a recent Instagram.

Chen, 22, is an American figure skater currently competing at the Winter Olympics in Beijing. She helped Team USA take home the silver medal in the team competition on Monday.

The Olympian wore a purple dress for the free skate portion of the competition. The long-sleeve dress had a low neckline that was framed with intricate rhinestones and featured a flowing miniskirt.

As she shared in a video for the Team USA Instagram, Chen's mom made the dress for her.

A post shared by Team USA (@teamusa)

"She probably does 90% of the work, and I do like 10%," Chen said in the video of how her figure skating dresses get made. "And by 10% I just tell her like, 'Oh, that looks good.'"

"She does all the hard work," Chen added of her mother. "She puts, like, blood, sweat, and tears into it."

The skater went on to say that her favorite part of the dress was a butterfly her mom had created using gemstones on the bodice of the dress.

"She, like, strategically picked the stones and arranged them in a way so it looks like a butterfly because my free program I'm skating to a 'Butterfly Lovers' Concerto,'" Chen said. "I just want to be a pretty butterfly on the ice."

Chen received a 131.52 for her free skate performance, giving Team USA the points it needed to win silver in the team competition.

A 15-year-old skater, Kamila Valieva, secured the gold for Russia after landing a historic quadruple spin twice during her free skate.

She fell during her third attempt at landing the quadruple, but Valieva still earned a 178.92 from the judges — nearly 50 more points than Chen — according to Eurosport.

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