Olympics-Figure skating-'Mao's Last Dancer' Li thrilled by Chen comeback

By Ian Ransom

(Reuters) - Over four years ago, Nathan Chen's desire to tap into his Chinese roots and pursue perfection in figure skating brought him to Li Cunxin, whose 2003 memoir 'Mao's Last Dancer' became a best-selling tale of triumph over adversity.

In his free programmes during the 2017/18 season, Chen was skating to music from the 2009 movie adaptation of Li's book but wanted to know more about the protagonist and his journey from rural poverty in Mao-era China to global acclaim in ballet.

Though glad to share his story and offer tips to a former ballet student, Li's advice came with a warning:

"You have devastating defeat and you learn from that," he told the young American.

"And it is going to make your success that much more rewarding."

A few months later, an 18-year-old Chen crashed out of medal contention at the Pyeongchang Games, having been hyped up as the main threat to eventual champion Yuzuru Hanyu for the gold.

Four years on, the second part of Li's prediction may be set to come true when quad-jumping machine Chen competes in the free skate of the men's singles in the gold medal position on Thursday.

Having anchored the United States' silver medal with a brilliant skate in the team event, the 22-year-old smashed Hanyu's short programme world record on Wednesday while the Japanese superstar faltered.

Chen's 2018 Olympics has often been seen as the failure of a nervous teenager who froze on figure skating's biggest stage.

His error-strewn short programme, skated to "Nemesis" by British singer and poet Benjamin Clementine, left him 17th in the standings.

But that was only half the story of Chen's Games.

Often forgotten is his brilliant rebound in the free programme, where he produced an Olympic record