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.

Nathan Chen skates to 5th straight U.S. championship; 7 aapi skaters will represent the U.S.

Silver medalist Vincent Zhou, left, and gold medalist Nathan Chen will skate for the U.S.

Asian American figure skaters continue to perform well in the sport with seven qualifying five athletes out of 15 for the 2021 U.S. Figure Skating team following competing in the 2021 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Las Vegas last weekend.

Nathan Chen, Vincent Zhou, Karen Chen, Madison Chock and Jessica Calalang will skate for the U.S. at the World's Championships in March.

Reigning U.S. champion Nathan Chen (Salt Lake Figure Skating) won his fifth straight U.S. title Sunday , becoming the first man to accomplish the feat since Dick Button won his fifth title in 1950.

Chen earned 208.36 points in Sunday’s free skate to total 322.28 points at the 2021 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships at The Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.

“[Winning my fifth straight title] means the world to me,” he said. “[Dick Button] is a true skating icon. It feels incredible to be trying to chase something that someone like that has done. I’m nowhere near the level that he was at, but it’s cool to be mentioned in his realm.”

Right behind Chen, Vincent Zhou (SC of San Francisco) medaled at his fifth consecutive U.S. Championships, earning the silver medal with 291.38 total points. Zhou scored 183.59 points for Sunday afternoon’s free skate.

Bradie Tennell reclaimed the title for Women's Figure Skating after three years, beating out two time champion, 15-year old Alysa Liu, who wound up in fourth place.

Joining Tennell on the team for the world's championship is Karen Chen, the 2017 U.S. Champion and 2018 Olympian. It will be Chen's second appearance at World's.

Hawaii's Madison Chock and her longtime partner Evan Bates will compete in Ice Dancing.

Filipino American Jessica Calalang will team up with Brian Johnson to compete in Pairs.