2022 Olympics: U.S. figure skater Karen Chen says her mom put 'blood, sweat, and tears' into her handmade free skate costume

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Olympic figure skater Karen Chen, who won silver alongside the rest of Team USA in the free skating team event on Monday, revealed in a video posted on Team USA's Instagram that it was her mother who made her bedazzled lavender costume, Vanity Fair reports.
"She probably does 90 percent of the work and I do like 10 percent and by 10 percent I just tell her like, 'Oh, that looks good' or 'That doesn't look good,'" Chen, 22, said of her mother's handiwork.
"She does all the hard work and she puts like blood, sweat, and tears into it," Chen added.
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The Olympic athlete said her favorite detail is a tiny rhinestone butterfly closer to the bottom of the dress. Her mom "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' and so I just want to be a pretty butterfly on the ice," she went on.
Chen placed fourth in the event on Monday, with the U.S. team overall taking home silver.
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A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Brigid is a staff writer at The Week and a graduate of Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. Her passions include improv comedy, David Fincher films, and breakfast food. She lives in New York.
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