Nathan Chen zoomed to Olympic redemption to the strains of ‘Rocket Man’ in Beijing on Thursday, thrusting clear of his rivals with a dazzling five-quad show in the men’s free skate.
“I never really felt I would be able to make it this far in my career,” said the 22-year-old Chen, who had entered the Pyeongchang Games four years ago as a teenage phenom only to fluff his medal chances with a series of falls in the short program.
“Of course, I’d always dreamed about making the Olympics and winning the Olympics, but I’d always thought, ‘that’s hard, I don’t know if I can make that happen.'”
Chen made no mistake second time around, building on his five-point advantage from Tuesday’s opener to cruise to the gold medal, his combined score of 332.60 extending his lead over second-placed Yuma Kagiyama of Japan.
Chen crammed in five quadruple jumps, faltering slightly on a triple towards the end of his routine, but there was never any doubt he had done enough to finally erase the painful memory of his Olympic debut.
Yuzuru Hanyu, Chen’s great rival who was bidding to become the first man to win three consecutive Olympic figure skating titles since 1928, fell twice, including in an attempt to become the first skater to land a quadruple axel in competition.
Hanyu, who also fell during his short program and started the final day in eighth place, recovered to deliver a typically flamboyant performance that lifted him to fourth place in standings, just behind his compatriot, bronze medallist Shoma Uno.
While pandemic rules meant there could be no trademark cascades of his favourite pooh-bears to the ice at the end of his performance, fans outside the venue bearing placards served as a timely reminder of Hanyu’s enormous status within the sport.
Of his narrow failure to land the quad-axel, which is harder than the others because it is the only one that starts on the front foot, Hanyu said: “I do the quad-axel much better now. I failed to realise my dream of completing it in this Olympics but I have worked really hard for it.
“It was a hard time for me on the ice. If I wasn’t doing the triple axel, I could have done a better combination. But that quad-axel was my pride. It’s going to make me more complete, and that’s why I did it.”
