Chen flips, spins way to world-record score at Olympics
BEIJING: Nathan Chen flipped, whirled and even punched his way to a world-record score in the men’s figure skating short program at the Beijing Olympics. Next up for the Salt Lake City native: an expected and long-awaited coronation as Olympic champion. Chen made history in a historic venue on Tuesday, crushing the world record with a score of 113.97 at Capital Indoor Stadium, site of the 1971 ping pong diplomacy matches between the United States and China.
Chen shined on a day when the US women’s hockey team lost 4-2 to rival Canada in the preliminary round and San Francisco native Eileen Gu brushed aside a torrent of hate on social media and won the gold medal in freeski big air while representing China. Dressed in his typical, suave black-and-white suit, Chen performed perhaps his favorite program to La Boheme, the 1960s standard by the French-Armenian singer Charles Aznavour. When it was over, he had confidently made up for his poor short program four years at the Pyeongchang Games.
Opening with a perfect quad flip, the 22-year-old Chen breezed through his often-vexing triple axel and then drilled his quad flip-triple toe loop combination. He skated to a stop and, in a rare show of emotion, punched the air with his right fist. “I was just elated,” Chen said.
“At the last Olympics, both of the short programs didn’t go the way I wanted. To finally get an opportunity to skate the programs I wanted feels really good.” Chen’s score was nearly two points more than the previous world record set by two-time defending Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu. To win the gold medal, Chen needs to hold off Japanese rivals Yuma Kagiyama and Shoma Uno in Thursday’s free skate.