/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70491750/AP22041196325255.0.jpg)
Nathan Chen is golden.
In Chen’s four-minute free skate program in Beijing, set to “Rocket Man” by Elton John, he landed 5 quadruple flip jumps, together with a quad lutz — essentially the most tough soar in determine skating.
A rating of 218.63 within the free skate, and a mixed rating of 332.60, all added as much as gold for the Salt Lake Metropolis-born determine skater.
“It’s only a whirlwind proper now. All the pieces’s taking place so quick, however I’m so comfortable,” Chen instructed NBC after successful the gold medal.
Chen, who skated final within the occasion, was protecting monitor of scores backstage earlier than he went on the ice. The stress of the second was palpable. A lot of Chen’s opponents, like South Korea’s Cha Jun-hwan and Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu and Shoma Uno, fell whereas trying jumps.
If Chen was feeling any nerves earlier than or throughout his efficiency, he didn’t present it, and he delivered the USA’s third gold medal of the 2022 Video games.
Olympic Champion habits. #WinterOlympicspic.twitter.com/4rp8oOplpd
— NBC Olympics (@NBCOlympics) February 10, 2022
After his world record-setting brief program on Monday, Chen pumped his fist after he completed. On Wednesday, his response was one among full reduction.
Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama gained the silver medal with a mixed rating of 310.05 and Uno took bronze with a mixed rating of 293.00.
It was redemption for Chen, who on the 2018 Video games completed seventeenth within the brief program earlier than vaulting to fifth place after the free skate, however nonetheless off podium place.
Failing on the world’s largest stage turned out to be a useful studying expertise.
Within the days between the brief program and the free skate on the 2018 Olympics, Chen modified his mindset and method.
As a result of he was out of medal competition, he was in a position to skate freely within the free skate, not anxious about successful a medal. He targeted on the technical features of his skate, feeling and listening to the music, protecting his thoughts clear and specializing in the current second. He excelled within the free skate, scoring a 215.08.
Earlier than the 2018 Pyeongchang Video games, Chen, then 18-years-old, put stress on himself to win gold, and it was a part of what led to the uncharacteristic errors he made within the brief program, falling on two jumps.
That free skate in Pyeongchang modified his mindset, which modified his skating, which led him to this second — breaking world information and successful a gold medal in maybe essentially the most dominant Olympic determine skating efficiency of all time.
Realizing that he failed with tens of millions watching worldwide, and it wasn’t the tip of the world, was a weight lifted off of him. He additionally labored with a sports activities psychologist.
“Though it's an especially significant occasion, on the finish of the day, whether or not you win, whether or not you lose, you’re going to nonetheless go dwelling and see your identical family and friends, you’re nonetheless going to do the identical actions,” Chen stated.
Together with his new mindset, Chen took his private skating — and determine skating as a complete — to the following stage.
He gained each contest he entered — 18 in complete — however one. He gained three world championships and capped all of it off with a sixth consecutive title on the U.S. Determine Skating Championships in January.
Quad by quad, he pushed skating to a brand new stage.
However the query at the back of everybody’s thoughts was, may he do it on the largest stage on the earth.
Sure, Chen delivered.
It began along with his particular person brief program, when he recorded the highest-ever rating determine skating has ever seen — 113.97. The efficiency was nearly flawless as he skated with hearth and depth in his eyes, nailing each of his quadruple flips.
He sealed the cope with his free skate.
The ghosts of 2018 are gone.
He grew up skating on a rink used on the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympics. And now, Chen is an Olympic gold medalist.