Nathan Chen threepeats at U.S. Figure Skating Champiionship

US. FIGURE SKATING

NNATHAN CHEN

By Louis Chan
ASAM NEWS

Nathan Chen is so dominating his sport the commentators are running out of superlatives to describe it.

The Utah native scored 342 points to dominate the U.S. Figure Skating Championships winning his third straight U.S. Championship.

“All hail Nathan, the great. He took me to another world, said Johnny Weir, the last U.S. skater to win three straight championships. “There is a dreamy quality to the music selection. He’s taken skating to an entirely new world.”

Tara Lipinsky, who won Olympic gold in 1998, went over-the-top in her praise.

“He is a god. He is not human,” she proclaimed. “This is it, guys. This is what skating is about. He’s pushing the boundaries."

Chen so dominated with his multiple quad jumps that the only suspense going into Sunday’s free skate was which skater would take second place -- Vincent Zhou of San Jose or Jason Brown of Los Angeles. Brown held a narrow lead over Zhou after the short program. In the end, Zhou finished second, about 58 points behind Chen after Brown fell while attempting a quad in the long program.

“I’m so happy right now,” Chen said about his victory. “That program went exactly as I wanted it to.”

Chen will skip next month's Four Continents Championship in California in order to concentrate on his Yale studies. Although he is a heavy favorite going into the Worlds March 18-24 in Japan, Chen isn’t taking anything for granted.

“Worlds is a whole another ballgame,” he cautioned.

After the competition, the top three men, Chen, Zhou and Brown were chosen to represent the U.S. at the World's Championship. Waiting in the wings if any of thte top three could not compete is the No. 1 alternate, Tomoki Hiwatashi.

Views From the Edge contributed to this report.
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Chen and Zhou in position to medal at skatings' World Championship

Nathan Chen

LOOKING very much like the Nathan Chen we expected to see at the recently concluded Olympics,, Nathan Chen sits atop the standings after the short program at the World Championship in Milan, Italy.

Fellow U.S. Olympian, Vincent Zhou, the youngest member of Team USA, skated the best short program of his life and is in third place in the men's figure skating competition.

Russia’s Mikhail Kolyada is in second heading into Saturday’s free skate.

Chen, the gold medal favorite in the Olympics, seeks to redeem himself after finishing a disappointing fifth the Olympic Winter Games in PyongChang, South Korea last month. He fell repeatedly while attempting his quads in his short program putting him in 17th position.

In the Olympics long program, Chen attempted a comeback with a record-breaking six quads to zoom back near the top but it wasn't enough to place him on the medals podium.

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2018 Winter Olympics: Nathan Chen dazzles with six quads but falls short of a medal

SCREEN CAPTURE / NBC

Nathan Chen finally delivers.

WHERE HAS HE BEEN? The Nathan Chen we were expecting to see finally showed up today (Feb. 16) with an unprecedented six quadruple jumps in his skating routine.

His dazzling performance that had the audience cheering and gasping, almost pulled off the impossible, coming from 17th place to almost medaling. With his record score of 215.08 points, Chen actually won the long program segment of the men's figure skating and held the bronze medal position until the last two skaters performed strong enough to edge out Chen;s quad attack.

“I definitely did want to redeem myself after the two short programs and I think I did here,” said Chen, who had come into Gangneung Ice Arena undefeated and as a medal favorite.

Chen, 18, had also struggled skating his short program in the figure skating team event, in which Team USA won the bronze medal.

Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan became the first male skater since Dick Button of Team USA in 1948 and 1952 to win back-to-back Olympic titles. Hanyu finished with an Olympic record total of 317.85, followed by teammate Shoma Uno, who edged Javier Fernandez of Spain, 306.90 to 305.24.

Chen finished in fifth place with a total score of 297.35 points. 

Vincent Zhou, the youngest member of Team USA at age 17, was sixth with 276.69 while 28-year-old Adam Rippon was 10th (259.36). All three Team USA skaters finished in the top 10 for the 15th time in Olympic history.

Chen, who last year became the first skater to land five quads in a program, had originally planned five for his free skate Saturday. 

RELATED: Figure skater Zhou flies; Chen falls

But after his two disastrous short programs, in which he made mistakes on his jumps and scored in the low 80s -- about 20 points lower than expected -- Chen decided he was going to show he truly was the “Quad King."

“It was sort of an anger thing,” he said. “I was just like, ‘Oh screw it, I’m going to try it. At this point I have literally nothing to lose. I’ll just go for it. And then I was like, ‘Well I can’t think about that right now. I can’t dwell on it. I’ll readjust in the morning, rethink about it.”

He said it was too early in the morning to try all the quads. His even gave his coach, Rafael Arutunian, a surprise when he threw in the sixth quad.

“That was me,” Chen said. “I didn’t even tell him I was doing that.”

Five of the six quads were clean, as Chen put his hand down on a quad flip, his extra jump. 

“I’m glad I was able to show myself and show everyone else that I can bounce back from a bad performance,” he said. “And honestly, I am human, I make mistakes. Unfortunately I had been having a really bad time. But I’m really happy with what I did here.”

Chen will have four years to mull over what might have been. He'll only be 22 years old when the next Olympics convene in China. 

Chen will have to be careful. His teammate Zhou surprised everyone with his Olympic performance.

The U.S. could very well have two medal finishers four years from now. 

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