Fleet-footed Brendan Kerry bows out of Beijing 2022 figure skating competition on a high

Three-time Olympian Brendan Kerry brought his campaign to a climactic end scoring a new personal best of 160.01 in the free skate. He advanced to the free skate after a classy performance in the short program, where he earned 84.79 points.

The 27-year-old Kerry finished 17th, his best-ever result in three appearances at the Olympic Winter Games, following the free skate program at Beijing 2022 on Thursday (10 February).

Triple world champion Nathan Chen claimed the title in emphatic fashion, becoming the seventh U.S. man to win Olympic gold in figure skating, scoring 218.63 for an overall winning total of 332.60 points.

"I'm ecstatic. I'm over the moon. It hasn't sunk in yet," Kerry told the Australian Olympic Committee.

"I've never been as strong on my long programs as I have been with the short, so I put a lot of pressure on myself to deliver today, and to do that means the world."

The eight-time Australian champion told the AOC he intended to execute two quadruple jumps but opted for one.

"I'm a little bit disappointed I didn't do the quad salchow, and for a while, after that, my brain was going into overdrive trying to work out if I could add another rotation in a different jump, but in the end, I just left it," he said. "I reminded myself that this is the Olympics, and I've just done the best I could do."

Kerry started Beijing 2022 on a high as one of Team Australia's flagbearers at the Opening Ceremony, which served as recognition of his contribution to figure skating in his country.

Kerry's mother, Monica MacDonald, was a seven-time national champion and competed in ice dancing at Calgary 1988, with Rodney Clarke becoming Australia's first ice dancing Olympians.

"To have the honour of being flagbearer, to walk out