Skater Karen Chen 'blind as a bat' when she secured extra U.S. Olympic spot

GANGNEUNG, South Korea — The dizzying spins and flips and flurried jumps of figure skating are unimaginably difficult enough to comprehend for those of us who don’t make a living surrounded by sequins and ice.

Imagine trying to do it blind. With your Winter Olympics destiny on the line.

That is what happened to Karen Chen, who will make her Olympic debut for the United States in the women’s individual event on Wednesday. Chen, 18, needed to skate lights out at the World Championships in Helsinki, Finland, last year in order for the U.S. to secure three spots at the Games instead of just two.

“There I was, in cold and dreary Finland, in the best skating shape of my life, but blind as a bat,”…