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Meet the athletes competing for the US figure skating team in Beijing

See the competitors who are making us proud at the Winter Olympics.

Let the Games begin!

Team USA’s finest are in Beijing for the 2022 Winter Olympics, and our world-class figure skating team is ready to go for the gold.

Here's a look at the athletes we'll be watching closely when they hit the ice.

TODAY meets the Team USA figure skaters ready to make America proud at the Beijing Games.
TODAY meets the Team USA figure skaters ready to make America proud at the Beijing Games.TODAY Illustration / Getty Images

Women's Figure Skating Team

There are three members of the women's team representing Team USA.: Alysa Liu, 16, Mariah Bell, 25, and Karen Chen, 22.

While chatting with TODAY’s Sheinelle Jones earlier this month, Bell reflected on what it's like to become the oldest U.S. Olympic women’s singles figure skater since 1928.

“It’s absolutely just a number,” she said of her age. “If you have a dream and you’re dedicated to it, and you’re working toward it, there doesn’t have to be an expiration date. I feel like I’m not even in my prime. I’m working to get there and I’m really excited to be the first woman in so long to be going.”

And she absolutely plans to make the most of it.

“I wanted to be on the Olympic team so bad I almost didn’t want to think about it too much before I got here, because it would, like, make me cry,” she added.

Mariah Bell skates in the Ladies Free Skate during the U.S. Figure Skating Championships at Bridgestone Arena on January 07, 2022 in Nashville, Tennessee.
Mariah Bell skates in the ladies free skate competition during the U.S. Figure Skating Championships at Bridgestone Arena on Jan. 7 in Nashville, Tennessee.Matthew Stockman / Getty Images

Bell isn’t the only one making history. Karen Chen is set to make her mark as the first woman single skater to compete in back-to-back Olympics in 15 years. And given that she’s faced daunting injuries since the Pyeongchang Games of 2018, she wasn’t sure it would happen.

“I did think about stepping away from the sport,” she confessed. “But for some reason, like under all of that stress, I guess I had clarity, and I just realized how much I love skating.”

Karen Chen skates in the Ladies Free Skate during the U.S. Figure Skating Championships at Bridgestone Arena on January 07, 2022 in Nashville, Tennessee.
Karen Chen skates in the ladies free skate during the U.S. Figure Skating Championships at Bridgestone Arena on Jan. 7, 2022, in Nashville, Tennessee.Matthew Stockman / Getty Images

Liu might be the youngest member of the team, but NBC Sports figure skating analyst Tara Lipinski said she's expecting a lot from the skater.

“I think what’s going to be really exciting for Alysa is that she’s the only U.S. woman at the Olympic Games with a triple axel,” she said during a recent conversation with TODAY's Hoda Kotb, referring to what is considered the most difficult jump in figure skating. “When you look at the top women in the world, there may be a Russian sweep in the women’s event because they’re doing triple axels and quads, and Alysa has that triple axel. So it will be exciting to see how close she can get to those top women.”

Alysa Liu
Alysa Liu of the United States competes in the women's short program during the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating on Nov. 12, 2021, in Tokyo. Atsushi Tomura / International Skating Union via Getty Images

Men's Figure Skating Team

There are three members of the men's team representing Team USA.: Jason Brown, 27, Nathan Chen, 22, and Vincent Zhou, 21.

While chatting with Sheinelle earlier this month, Brown said that waiting to find out if he’d made the Olympics team was a process that was full of anticipation.

“We were all glued to our phones waiting for (the announcement) to come through,” he said.

Making it to the Olympics is a long, arduous journey and Nathan Chen (no relation to Karen), said it’s his passion for the sport that fuels the entire figure skating team.

“All the figure skaters have been doing it since they’re kids,” he said. “It’s amazing to feel that all your work is like culminating to this one moment, you know, we’ve all worked really hard to be where we are.”

Nathan Chen
Nathan Chen of the United States skates in the men's short program during the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating on Oct. 29, 2021, in Vancouver, British Columbia.International Skating Union via Getty Images

According to Lipinski, all of his hard work is likely to pay off in a big way.

“His chances are — he’s probably going to win this Olympic gold medal. ... He’s hands-down the favorite,” she recently told Hoda.

Vincent Zhou
Vincent Zhou of the United States competes in the men's short program during the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating - NHK Trophy at Yoyogi National Gymnasium on Nov. 12, 2021, in Tokyo.Atsushi Tomura / International Skating Union via Getty Images

In a recent interview with NBC News, Zhou said his parents have been his biggest supporters in his Olympics journey, and he said they're the first people he thinks about when he wins a competition.

“Achieving a certain level of success gives a person some perspective on how things are,” Zhou said. “And when I am standing on a podium, hearing the national anthem being played and having a medal placed around my neck, my thoughts … always go back to the people who helped me along the way.” 

The Winter Olympics began Feb. 3, and you can watch all the action on NBC and Peacock.