Nathan Chen said "he never thought he'd be able to make it this far" as he won Olympic figure skating gold in Beijing on Thursday, easily beating defending champion Yuzuru Hanyu, who fell twice and finished fourth. The American three-time world champion finally claimed the only major prize that had eluded him with his overall score of 332.60, more than 20 points ahead of his nearest challenger. Chen held his nerve to score 218.63 in his free programme, building on his record-breaking short programme score from Tuesday to win gold from 18-year-old Yuma Kagiyama. Another Japanese skater, Shoma Uno, took bronze.