'Ice prince' Hanyu vs Quad King in Olympics figure skating clash

A hotly anticipated clash between Nathan Chen of the United States and Japan's Yuzuru Hanyu in the men's Olympic figure skating begins on Tuesday in Beijing, with both laser-focused on grasping gold.

For Chen, it's the only major prize that has eluded him, while 27-year-old Hanyu is after a third consecutive gold and an undisputed position as one of skating's all-time greats.

Highly decorated skaters known for pushing the discipline to new limits, both are equipped with a devastating arsenal of physics-defying jumps matched with a gift for expressive performance.

Chen has already fired a warning shot in Beijing.

His score in Friday's short programme in the team event was just 0.11 points off the world record -- which is held by Hanyu.

The defending champion meanwhile only landed in Beijing on Sunday and will not get to try out the competition rink before the day of the event.

But it is not out of character for the enigmatic "Ice Prince", who also missed the beginning of the 2018 Pyeongchang Games at which he triumphed.

Despite a fanatical legion of fans at home and abroad, Hanyu remains something of a mystery, absent from social media and rarely granting interviews.

His coach Brian Orser though told the Olympic news site that his supporters keep him going.

"He likes to show his fans that he's the best," Orser said.

Should Hanyu prove that to be true at these Games, he will join 1920s star Gillis Grafstrom of Sweden as the only other man to win three Olympic singles figure skating titles.

Quad revolutions

Chen is known as the "Quad King" because he was the first skater to hit five different "quad jumps" -- where the athlete rotates four times in the air -- in competition.

The number and variety of jumps Chen works into