Nathan Chen has more than lived up to his favorite role in figure skating. The American put the finishing touches in his free freestyle and overtook three Japanese, including defending champion Yuzuru Hanyu.
Beforehand, people were looking forward to a duel between Nathan Chen and defending champion Yuzuru Hanyu, but after the short freestyle it was already clear that that would not happen. The Japanese was only 8th and had to make up too much ground in his free freestyle.
He did everything he could, but immediately fell at his first quadruple axel. Later in his freestyle he came into contact with the ice again. His last glimmer of hope for a third gold medal in a row was thus dashed.
He completed the rest of his freestyle flawlessly and so he still jumped to place 4.
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It was the two other Japanese who pressured Chen: Uno Shoma and Yuma Kagiyama came through their freestyle without major mistakes. So they were sure of a medal and Nathan Chen knew that he had to conquer at least 196 points.
He skated in a space-print shirt on Elton John’s Rocket Man and piled up the quadruple jumps. Chen was barely caught by a mistake and showed his artistic ability in addition to his athleticism.
He received no less than 218.63 points from the jury. More than enough for the gold.
A medal that will taste sweet for the 22-year-old after he figuratively fell through the ice four years ago.
