The Winter Games Are Coming! Get Ready with PEOPLE's The Best of Olympic Figure Skating

Want the inside scoop on your favorite figure skaters from Winter Olympics past and present? We’ve got you covered.

PEOPLE spoke to some of the biggest names in skating for its new special edition, The Best of Olympic Figure Skating.

“I am really bringing out my inner Kristi Yamaguchi here — or at least trying to,” Karen Chen, who will compete at the Olympics for the first time next month in South Korea, tells PEOPLE.

Both Chen and her hero/mentor Yamaguchi, who brought home gold in 1992, are among the top skaters featured in a new special edition. Inside are interviews scores of skaters, including with 2018 Team USA members Karen Chen, Nathan Chen, Adam Rippon and returning sibling ice-dancing pair Maia and Alex Shibutani.

“We’re a lot better,” says Maia, who finished ninth alongside her brother at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. “We know the direction we want, and that’s really exciting for us to show on the ice.”

In addition to catch-ups with America’s first figure skating gold medalists (Dick Button and Tenley Albright), inside are visits with favorites like Scott Hamilton, Peggy Fleming and Michelle Kwan, who tells PEOPLE she plans to be at the Games in February.

“I’ll be cheering on the athletes — it’s a whole lotta love,” she says.

RELATED VIDEO: Ashley Wagner Reveals Adam Rippon Found Out He Was Going to the Olympics Over a Text!

We also sit down with Olympic veterans and best friends Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir, who will be in South Korea for NBC. “As commentators watching the up-and-coming skaters, we’ve been able to see some pretty incredible performances,” promises Lipinski. “This year’s going to be top-notch.”

Finally, PEOPLE revisits the events that changed Olympic skating forever, including the 2002 vote-fixing scandal that ended in a tie for pairs competitors from Canada and Russia — and, of course, the 1994 showdown between Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding, whose story is depicted in the film I, Tonya. 

PEOPLE’s special issue The Best of Olympic Figure Skating is available now in the Time Inc. store, on Amazon and wherever magazines are sold.