Chen wins men's skating title; five AAPI skaters named to the U.S. Olympic team

U.S. SKATING

Nathan Chen captured his record-setting sixth national  skating championship Sunday.

For the first time in 70 years, a U.S. man has won six consecutive national titles.

Three-time and reigning world champion Nathan Chen will head into next month's Olympic Games Beijing 2022 one title shy of two-time Olympic champ Dick Button's record, Button winning seven straight from 1946-52.

Chen, 22, captured his sixth title Sunday (Jan. 9) at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Nashville: Using his 2020 routine, he earned a free skate score of 212.62 added to his score for the short program to total 328.01.

He registered a 26-point win over the surprise of the weekend in 17-year-old Ilia Malinin, who was spectacular in both the short and free programs to claim the silver medal in his senior debut with a score of 302.48.

Vincent Zhou placed third and Jason Brown fourth.

The three-member U.S. men's team for Beijing 2022 was announced Sunday evening, with Chen, Zhou and Brown getting the nod. The selection committee bases its choices off of a skater's "body of work" from the recent past, including these national championships.

Earlier on Sunday, U.S. Figure Skating announced the two teams for pair skating and the three duos headed to Beijing for ice dance. With Chen and Zhou, there will be a total of five Asian Americans on the skating team. 

The other members of the team are:

Pair skating: Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier; Ashley Cain-Gribble and Timothy LeDuc

Ice dance: Madison Chock and Evan Bates; Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue; Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker. Chock is of Chinese and Hawaiian descent.

Mariah Bell, Karen Chen and Alysa Liu were named to the figure skating team on Saturday.