The 22-year-old athlete’s win at the men’s singles event marks the world champion’s triumphant comeback after his disappointing performance at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics.
AceShowbiz -American figure skater Nathan Chen wins a gold medal at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. The 22-year-old came victorious in the men’s singles event on Wednesday, February 9 at Capital Indoor Stadium.
Chen took home the gold medal after scoring a 218.63 in his free skate, which was set to a medley from Elton John‘s “Rocketman“, and 332.60 overall. Meanwhile, Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama stumbled on a quad loop, costing him any chance of winning. Kagiyama, however, did hold on for silver.
Fellow Japanese skater Shoma Uno, meanwhile, had a stumble of his own, on a quad flip. He managed to earn a bronze medal.
Taking the No. 4 spot was two-time defending gold medalist Yuzuru Hanyu. He shockingly bailed on his first quad jump in the short program and managed to only place eighth heading into the free skate. Hanyu fell to the ice after attempting to do a quad axel in his free skate, which has never been landed in competition. He eventually jumped up to fourth in the final standings with a strong free skate.
Fellow Team USA member Jason Brown came into the free skate placing sixth in the individual short program and held onto that spot in the final standings.
“After I finished the last jump, I thought I was pretty much close [to guaranteeing gold],” Chen said in an interview on NBC. “I was keeping track of what was going on so I kind of had an idea… Overall [I was] just so happy.”
Chen’s win marks the world champion’s triumphant comeback after his disappointing 2018 Pyeongchang performance. At the time, he won a bronze medal with the U.S. team but finished a disappointing fifth place in the men’s singles competition.
At this year’s Olympics, Chen had the top score in the short program during the team event, in which the Americans won a best-ever silver medal. Later in Tuesday’s short program during the individual event, Chen earned the highest short program score in history with a 113.97.
“You can never really count out any of these athletes,” Chen said 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.”
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