Nathan Chen's golden day: On Elton John, his Olympic 'power pose' and that mid-program smile

Nathan Chen may be a singles figure skater, but what about an Olympic-sized duet with Sir Elton John?

The Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 champion is in celebratory mode a day after his triumph to become the seventh U.S. man to claim the Olympic crown, but he didn't expect accolades from the iconic British musician, whose music he skated to in his winning free skate program.

“Congratulations Nathan Chen for winning gold skating to “Rocket Man” in Beijing,” it read, simply.

"I'm not actually using social media right now, so my agent texted me the Elton John tweet, and it's just nuts to think that he even knows I exist," a beaming Chen told Olympics.com exclusively. "Sir Elton John?! That's amazing."

He continued: "And then I showed it to [training partner] Mariah Bell and her suite mates, and everyone was screaming. It was really special."

Chen is quite the musician himself, having played piano as a child and more recently, the guitar. He brought his electric guitar to Beijing with him, something he's said has been the perfect distraction in the lead-up to his golden effort.

But what about a jam session with Sir John himself?

"I mean, I would be... I don't know if I'd be able to keep up with his talent," a smiling Chen said. "But even to be able to meet him in person would be the most special."

"Special" only begins to describe what Chen, a 22-year-old and three-time reigning world champion, was able to produce over two days of the men's singles event at the Capital Indoor Stadium here.

Four years after imploding for a fifth-place finish at PyeongChang 2018, Chen set a world record in the short program and didn't hesitate taking the pole position into the free skate, where he skated in the most pressurized of positions: