Nathan Chen wins men's figure skating gold medal at Beijing Olympics

Nathan Chen had to wait four long years for his Olympic redemption, but on Thursday in Beijing, he left nothing to chance and won the first gold medal of his already storied career.

For just over four minutes at Capital Indoor Stadium during Thursday's free skate, Chen — the final skater to take the ice — dazzled with his combination of poise and precision, landing all five of his quadruple jumps and finishing his performance with an emphatic finger point towards the crowd.

The 22-year-old American has been one of the most dominant figure skaters on the scene for the past several years, with three world championships and six national titles, but he had been unable to deliver on the hype during the 2018 Olympic Games in Pyeongchang. Two mistake-riddled short programs, in the individual and team events, proved costly. He won a bronze medal with the U.S. team but finished a disappointing fifth place in the men's singles competition.

But these Olympics have been different. He had the top score in the short program during the team event, in which the Americans won a best-ever silver medal, and showed no signs of residual nerve or fear. And his performance in Tuesday's short program during the individual event was even better. Chen earned the highest short program score in history with a 113.97.

Still, despite his lead and surging confidence and momentum, Chen knew the job wasn't over.

«You can never really count out any of these athletes,» Chen said on Tuesday. «The competition's not one program. Whatever happens in the short program is not indicative of what will happen in the free program.»

But with the best score again of the day, he left no room for his opponents to decrease the deficit and became the first American to