Nathan Chen delivered a golden performance in the men’s figure skating finals to seal a gold medal victory for Team USA Wednesday night.
The medal that alluded him after a devastating short program at the 2018 Olympics came wrapped in a gold ribbon in Beijing in 2022.
“It means the world. I’m just so happy,” Chen said according to CNN, adding there were “too many emotions to process”.
Vox reports that Chen nailed his first four quadruple jumps, a quad flip combo, quad flip, quad salchow, and quad lutz. He scored nearly 40 points alone with the quad flips and the quad lutz.
“After I finished the last jump, I thought I was pretty much close [to guaranteeing gold],” Chen said in an interview on NBC, reported ESPN. “I was keeping track of what was going on, so I kind of had an idea … Overall [I was] just so happy.”
His journey to gold restarted with a sense of urgency after 2018. Chen went on from there to go on an incredible win streak that included just one loss. That one at the start of the 2021 season to Vincent Zhou, who due to a positive test for COVID, had to drop out of the Olympics following a silver medal in the team competition.
This Olympics Chen delivered his best short program ever, scoring a record 113.97. He had a commanding lead going into the free skate. There would be no let-up.
“You can never really count out any of these athletes,” ESPN quoted Chen as saying on Tuesday. “The competition’s not one program. Whatever happens in the short program is not indicative of what will happen in the free program.”
Two Japanese skaters, Yuma Kagiyama and Shoma Uno, won silver and bronze. American veteran skater Jason Brown placed sixth.
Chen is the first American skater since Evan Lysacek in 2010 to win gold.
“I can’t even describe it,” Chen said. “You can’t imagine what it might feel like, but it’s just amazing.”
He said he channeled Michelle Kwan for inspiration.
“I can’t even describe it,” Chen said. “You can’t imagine what it might feel like, but it’s just amazing.”
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