Nathan Chen banished the demons of Pyeongchang with a record-breaking short program routine to put himself in control of the men’s figure skating competition at the Capital Indoor Arena in Beijing.
The 22-year-old saw his dreams of individual Olympic gold dashed four years ago after a series of errors in his short program routine, which gave him too much to make up in the concluding free skate.
But this time it was double defending champion Yuzuru Hanyu – bidding to become the first man to win three consecutive titles since 1928 – who stumbled, pulling out of an attempted quadruple salchow and finishing the day in eighth place.
“I’d say I was pretty close to my best,” said Chen. “Obviously there are always things you can improve on, there are always things you can do a little bit better, but overall I’m very happy.”
Chen’s near-flawless routine scored 113.97, a world record, giving him a healthy advantage over second-placed Yuma Kagiyama on 108.12, with another Japanese skater, Shoma Uno, in third.
Hanyu’s score of 95.15 effectively ended his chances of retaining his title, but he could still reach the podium, particularly if he becomes the first man to land a quadruple axel in competition.
Hanyu was hit by injuries in the build-up to Beijing, returning from eight months out with a glittering performance at the Japanese National Championships in December, where he vowed to land the quad-axel – the toughest jump in skating – at the Olympics.
“You certainly can’t ever count him out,” added Chen. “He’s two-time Olympic champion for a reason. Also, no matter what he does in the future, he will always, always be a true figure skating icon, one of the greatest ever, if not the greatest ever.
“It’s been such an amazing honour to be alive at the same time as him and be able to witness what he’s been able to do on the ice.”
Ester Ledecka of the Czech Republic retained her women’s snowboard parallel slalom title as she aims to emulate her achievement in Pyeongchang, where she became the first competitor to win gold in two different sports at the same Winter Olympics.
Ledecka will go for further back-to-back wins in the women’s super-g on Friday at the Yanqing Alpine Centre.
