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Nathan Chen’s Olympic masterpiece is complete after he earned the men’s figure skating gold medal at the 2022 Beijing Games on Thursday.
The 22-year-old American entered the free skate first in the 24-competitor field after posting a record score of 113.97 in the short program.
He left no doubt about who would end atop the podium after a tremendous free skate (218.63) that put him more than 22 points clear of Japan’s Kagiyama Yuma, the next-closet finisher.
Japanese skaters finished second, third and fourth in Beijing, with Kagiyama and Uno Shoma earning bronze and silver. Hanyu Yuzuru rose to fourth after posting the third-best free skate on the day.
Here’s a look at the complete results alongside some notes and highlights.
Results
1. Nathan Chen (United States): 332.60 (113.97 Short, 218.63 Free)
2. Kagiyama Yuma (Japan): 310.05 (108.12 Short, 201.93 Free)
3. Uno Shoma (Japan): 293.00 (105.90 Short, 187.10 Free)
4. Hanyu Yuzuru (Japan): 283.21 (95.15 Short, 188.06 Free)
5. Cha Junhwan (Republic of Korea): 282.38 (99.51 Short, 182.87 Free)
6. Jason Brown (United States): 281.24 (97.24 Short, 184.00 Free)
7. Daniel Grassl (Italy): 278.07 (90.64 Short, 187.43 Free)
8. Evgeni Semenenko (Russian Olympic Committee): 274.13 (95.76 Short, 178.37 Free)
9. Jin Boyang (China): 270.43 (90.98 Short, 179.45 Free)
10. Morisi Kvitelashvili (Georgia): 268.62 (97.98 Short, 170.64 Free)
11. Keegan Messing (Canada): 265.61 (93.24 Short, 172.37 Free)
12. Kevin Aymoz (France): 254.80 (93.00 Short, 161.80 Free)
13. Deniss Vasiljevs (Latvia): 252.71 (85.30 Short, 167.41 Free)
14. Adam Siao Him Fa (France): 250.15 (86.74 Short, 163.41 Free)
15. Mark Kondratiuk (Russian Olympic Committee): 248.82 (86.11 Short, 162.71 Free)
16. Matteo Rizzo (Italy): 247.53 (88.63 Short, 158.90 Free)
17. Brendan Kerry (Australia): 244.80 (84.79 Short, 160.01 Free)
18. Vladimir Litvintsev (Azerbaijan): 239.19 (84.15 Short, 155.04 Free)
19. Andrei Mozalev (Russian Olympic Committee): 233.33 (77.05 Short, 156.28 Free)
20. Konstantin Milyukov (Belarus): 222.22 (78.49 Short, 143.73 Free)
21. Nikolaj Majorov (Sweden): 220.78 (78.54 Short, 142.24 Free)
22. Donovan Carrillo (Mexico): 218.13 (79.69 Short, 138.44 Free)
23. Lukas Britschgi (Switzerland): 212.58 (76.16 Short, 136.42 Free)
24. Ivan Shmuratko (Ukraine): 205.76 (78.11 Short, 127.65 Free)
Source: Olympics.com
Notes, Highlights
Chen, who skated to numerous songs from the Elton John biopic Rocketman, landed five quad jumps during his free skate. The New York Times broke them down.
The New York Times @nytimes
Here are those Olympic gold medal-winning jumps from Nathan Chen ????????. <br><br>The American star landed an incredible five quad jumps in his <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Beijing2022?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#Beijing2022</a> free skate routine. <a href=”https://t.co/9Uqesi7VAB”>https://t.co/9Uqesi7VAB</a> <a href=”https://t.co/jKTRJyH0OH”>pic.twitter.com/jKTRJyH0OH</a>
Robert Samuels of the Washington Post commented on Chen and his performance:
Robert Samuels @newsbysamuels
In a sport rife with drama and controversy, Nathan Chen is both calming presence and a thrill on the ice. Judges are hard to agree on anything but they agreed the second quad flip and the quad lutz were practically perfect. What a champion. <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Beijing2022WinterOlympics?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#Beijing2022WinterOlympics</a>
This marked Chen’s second Olympic performance after he took part in the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. The first time ended with Chen finishing fifth after he ended the short program 17th. Chen finished first in the free skate, showcasing what he can do at his best.
Figure skating’s newest king performed at his peak in Beijing, and now he is the seventh American to win Olympic gold in men’s figure skating and the first since 2010 (Evan Lysacek):
NBC Olympics @NBCOlympics
Nathan Chen, Olympic Champion. ????<a href=”https://twitter.com/TeamUSA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@TeamUSA</a> x <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/WinterOlympics?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#WinterOlympics</a> <a href=”https://t.co/ClaPVWJ2vj”>pic.twitter.com/ClaPVWJ2vj</a>
A gold-medal finish certainly wasn’t a formality as Chen began his free skate routine. The 18-year-old Kagiyama, who finished with the silver at the 2021 World Championships, put forth an excellent free skate that kept him in second place. He and Chen were the only two competitors to finish with 200 or more points in the free skate.
Uno, who won silver at the last Olympic Games, also fared well en route to third. He took third in both the short program and free skate to earn the bronze.
The 24-year-old is a two-time World Championships silver medalist, and he also won bronze at the Olympic team figure skating event this year.
Hanyu didn’t make the podium this year after winning gold in 2018, but he posted an excellent effort just to come close this time around. He ended the short program in eighth place but bounced back with his performance in the free skate. Hanyu ended up finishing 10 points shy of the bronze.
In the end, this was Chen’s time to shine, and he delivered on the world’s biggest stage.
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