BEIJING — A shocking mistake by Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan cracked the door open for the end of his reign as two-time men's Olympic figure skating champion. Nathan Chen barged through that door, blowing past Hanyu on Tuesday with a brilliant, world-record performance that put him in the lead after the short program, the first of two segments in the competition.
Hanyu touched off an audible gasp throughout Capital Indoor Stadium when he reduced his first planned jump, a quadruple salchow, to a single jump. His score of 95.15 left points on the table and gave hope to the challengers who for years had been stymied by his blend of technical wizardry and elegance. Chen, a three-time world champion and six-time U.S. champion, landed two quadruple jumps in his "La Boheme" program to earn 113.97 points, breaking Hanyu's record short program score by more than two points. Dynamic Yuma Kagiyama of Japan was second (108.12), ahead of Japan's Shoma Uno (105.90). Hanyu was eighth and faces a tough climb to medal contention in the free skate on Thursday.
"Scores are out of my control and I really wasn't expecting that," said Chen, who felt uneasy during the six-minute warmup but used his experience on the world stage to calm himself. "I'm definitely just very happy with the way I skated and happy to be here."
