Nathan Chen was the United States’ best hope to win a Winter Olympics gold medal in men’s figure skating entering the competition. Nothing seemed to go right for him in the short program on Thursday night, however, seemingly dashing his hopes.
Nathan Chen lands historic 6 quads in figure skating free skate
The 18-year-old American earned the fifth-highest score in figure skating history.
Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images
After the short program, Chen was disappointed but ready to put it behind him: ““[It] just was rough,” Chen said, via USA Figure Skating. “I did all the right stuff going into it; it should have been different, but stuff happens. Take it for what it is and move on.”
Friday he did just that and reminded everyone why he’s so exciting by landing a record five quads during his free skate, and then adding a sixth for good measure.
The 18-year-old earned a stunning 127.64 points in the technical portion of scoring and a mind-boggling 215.08 for the program. That score was the fifth highest in history and gave him 297.35 total. To put it in a little more perspective, the winning score in the 2014 Sochi Olympics was 280.09, put forth by Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu.
That’s probably not a high enough score to win gold in Pyeongchang, but it’s got Chen back in medal contention and gave everyone something to get excited about.
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