Winter Olympics 2022: Nathan Chen dazzles in his return

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Nathan Chen stood in the middle of the Olympic rink, bent his arm over his chest and gave a slight bow to the judges, then briskly skated away following his short program during the team competition at the Winter Games.

He might as well have said, "Aw, shucks."

Yet the way the typically reserved Chen felt after Friday's soaring performance at Capital Indoor Arena, and the way the 22-year-old American felt four years ago in Pyeongchang, was about as different as an axel and a lutz.

He was perfect in Beijing: His massive, opening quad flip to "La Bohème" seemed almost to reach the rafters, his often troublesome triple axel was faultless and the harrowing quad lutz-triple toe loop combination in the middle of the program left him with the second-highest short program score ever in international competition.

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Nathan Chen, of the United States, competes during the men's singles short program team event in the figure skating competition at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Friday, Feb. 4, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

He was anything but perfect in Pyeongchang, when a poor short program for the team event bled into a calamitous short program in the individual event, whisking Chen out of medal contention before he felt he'd arrived.

"It's nice to be able to have run-throughs like this," Chen said after helping the Americans take a two-point lead over the heavily favored Russians following the first of three days in the team event. "Whatever you can take from each practice, good or bad, you take with you, and that's the same thing with competition."

He might have learned a lesson from the bad in South Korea, but