Nathan Chen insisted this was not about redemption. The world’s most dominant figure skater over the past 47 months has not spent much time dwelling on his catastrophic Olympic debut in 2018, saying that he is motivated not by the scoreboard but by treating every competition as an opportunity to showcase his hard work while trying to enjoy himself the best that he can.
But results do matter. And from the crisp opening quadruple flip of his short program in the Olympic figure skating team competition on Friday morning, it was clear the American’s struggles on the sport’s biggest stage are firmly in the past and his arc remains firmly on course for a storybook ending in next week’s main event.
