Above: Logan Higase-Chen displays her skating prowess. Photo Credit: Melanie Heaney/U.S. Figure Skating
By Grace Knoop
From Japan to Hong Kong to China to Spain to the United States, 2024 U.S. junior champion Logan Higase-Chen has trained all over the world.
After first stepping on the ice in Tokyo at a Christmas pop-up rink, Higase-Chen has become hooked, enamored with the feeling of simply being on the ice.
“I love the cold air and the feeling of gliding across the ice,” Higase-Chen said.
When her family moved from Japan to Hong Kong, Higase-Chen was still skating — and quickly progressing. After an introduction to two-time Olympic bronze medalist Chen Lu, she and her mother decided they would make the one-hour and 30-minute journey into China each day to train with Lu, who, Higase-Chen said, helped her become the skater she is today.
Higase-Chen and her mother would dash into the car after school and head over the China border, making for long days and hours in the car.
“We crossed the Shenzhen border so many times that both our passports were filled with the little red entry stamps,” Higase-Chen said. “Those were long days. The skating itself was wonderful, but the hours in the car and waiting in immigration were not so fun. But it was worth it to get a chance to train with Chen Lu and her husband, Denis Petrov, who was a Russian Olympic pairs medalist.”
Higase-Chen and her family were still living in Hong Kong when political protests broke out in 2019. Beginning as peaceful pro-democracy, anti-government protests, the marches became violent and Higase-Chen’s family became concerned for their safety. Trains and roads were shut down and protesters targeted the rink where Higase-Chen trained.
At the height of the protests, Higase-Chen and her family left Hong Kong on a trip to Granada, Spain, where she trained with 2018 Olympic bronze medalist Javier Fernandez at his summer camp. Following their trip to Spain, Higase-Chen and her family never returned to Hong Kong.
“I was too young to fully appreciate how crazy things were in Hong Kong at that time,” Higase-Chen said. “But I knew things were very serious when my parents were worried enough to suddenly decide not to go back. That decision was a major shock for my brother and I.”
From Spain, Higase-Chen moved to Estero, Florida, to train with Marina Zoueva before moving to Colorado Springs, Colorado, where she remains training with Tammy Gambill at the renowned Broadmoor World Arena.
On her first day in Colorado, Higase-Chen was working on her double Axel, dreaming of the day when it would be a solid jump in her repertoire. Now, just four years later, Hiagse-Chen is the U.S. junior champion and gearing up for potentially her best season yet.
“When I first came to Tammy, I didn’t have a double Axel,” Higase-Chen said. “Less than a year later, I had all my triples. Tammy has been my coach from when I was just an intermediate with one triple all the way to a junior championship. I am so grateful to Tammy and all the coaches at the World Arena who have helped me grow as a skater.”
In one year with Gambill, Higase-Chen jumped from intermediate to junior, qualifying for her first U.S. Championships in 2023, finishing in the top 10. With the big jump in levels, she remembered feeling inexperienced and new to the environment around her. This past year she felt more confident in her training and what she needed to do to reach the top of the junior podium.
“This last year, I think I trained with a better understanding of what I needed to do to improve my scores and my general competitiveness,” Higase-Chen said. “I worked very hard to be more consistent not only on my jumps but on my artistry. In my artistry, I am trying to bring greater maturity to my performance. I think those are the key differences between 2022–23 and 2023–24.”
Now with a U.S. junior title, Higase-Chen has already hit the ground running this season, earning the silver medal at the 2024 Cranberry Cup International. Back on the Junior Grand Prix circuit for the first time since 2022, Higase-Chen looks forward to using her experience as an advantage.
“When I qualified for a Junior Grand Prix in 2022, I was only 13, and it was my first year in juniors,” she said. “In hindsight, I was inexperienced. I feel excited and grateful to be back, and I feel much more confident in my skating this year.”
With a new mindset and added experience, Higase-Chen is ready to compete at her Junior Grand Prix season debut in Bangkok, Thailand, with goals of the podium and achieving personal-best scores.
