Nathan Chen captures Olympic figure skating gold, becoming seventh American man to win title

Nathan Chen has rocketed to the top of the figure skating world.

Out of this world, actually.

The three-time and reigning world champion was near his stirring best on Thursday (10 February) inside the Capital Indoor Stadium at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, skating to Elton John's "Rocketman" for his free skate and scoring a 218.63 for the program - launching him to 332.60 overall.

Japan's Kagiyama Yuma (310.05) and Uno Shoma (293.00) rounded out the podium, going two-three to give their country two men's singles medals at the Games for a second Olympics in a row.

Chen, 22, had set the world record in the short program, skating to a five-point lead over Kagiyama, the Youth Olympic champion who was skating in his first Games.

Chen becomes the seventh U.S. man to win an Olympic gold in figure skating, Evan Lysacek being the most recent at Vancouver 2010.

The American had won three world titles leading up to Beijing, in 2018, 2019 and 2021, the world championships being cancelled in 2020 due to the global pandemic. His 10-event international win streak lasted from March 2018 through to October 2021, when he placed third at Skate America.

The blip played part in Chen moving back to his programs from the 2019-20 season, including "Rocketman" - as well as "La Boheme" in the short program.

It had been a disappointing short program here for two-time Olympic champion Hanyu Yuzuru, where he finished eighth. The Japanese superstar staged a comeback in the free, however, scoring a 188.06 and holding onto the lead into the final three skaters but ending up fourth, scoring a 283.21.

Hanyu fell on his historic quadruple Axel attempt, under-rotating the never-done-before jump in his attempt to make more history.

The top six was