USA's Nathan Chen flips, spins way to world-record score at Olympics

Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com.

Nathan Chen flipped, whirled and even punched his way to a world-record score in the men’s figure skating short program at the Beijing Olympics.

Next up for the Salt Lake City native: an expected and long-awaited coronation as Olympic champion.

LIVE UPDATES: BEIJING OLYMPICS

Chen made history in a historic venue on Tuesday, crushing the world record with a score of 113.97 at Capital Indoor Stadium, site of the 1971 ping pong diplomacy matches between the United States and China.

Chen shined on a day when the U.S. women’s hockey team lost 4-2 to rival Canada in the preliminary round and San Francisco native Eileen Gu brushed aside a torrent of hate on social media and won the gold medal in freeski big air while representing China.

Dressed in his typical, suave black-and-white suit, Chen performed perhaps his favorite program to La Boheme, the 1960s standard by the French-Armenian singer Charles Aznavour. When it was over, he had confidently made up for his poor short program four years at the Pyeongchang Games.

, of the United States, competes during the men's short program figure skating competition at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Opening with a perfect quad flip, the 22-year-old Chen breezed through his often-vexing triple axel and then drilled his quad flip-triple toe loop combination. He skated to a stop and, in a rare show of emotion, punched the air with his right fist.

"I was just elated," Chen said. "At the last Olympics, both of the short programs didn’t go the way I wanted. To finally get an opportunity to skate the programs I wanted feels really good."

Chen’s score was