Nathan Chen on brink of elite club of US Olympic champions

Scott Hamilton and Brian Boitano have been ready greater than a decade for somebody to hitch them in one of the vital unique golf equipment in American determine skating: Olympic champions.

The wait might be right down to a day.

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With one clear efficiency in Thursday’s free skate, Nathan Chen will end a four-year journey of redemption by successful his elusive Olympic gold medal on the Beijing Video games. In doing so, he’ll grow to be the seventh American males’s skater to step atop the rostrum and the primary since Evan Lysacek on the 2010 Vancouver Video games.

“Together with his lead after his record-breaking quick program, he doesn’t even must do what he usually does in his lengthy program,” mentioned Hamilton, the 1984 Sarajevo gold medalist. “However I’m hoping and relying on the truth that he’ll. He needs to be himself within the free program, not worrying about anybody else within the competitors.”

The truth for Chen? There isn’t a lot competitors, and there hasn’t been for some time.

The 22-year-old Yale pupil has misplaced simply as soon as, final 12 months at Skate America, since a poor quick program on the Pyeongchang Video games dashed his medal possibilities there. Chen has gained three straight world titles since, his sixth nationwide championship final month and, as if offended by that lone defeat, got here again the following week to win Skate Canada.

It was on the brilliantly white ice of Capital Indoor Stadium, although, the place Chen delivered the efficiency of his life.

On Tuesday morning in Beijing, and with thousands and thousands watching on prime-time tv again house, Chen skated off to the opening chords of “La Bohème” by the French-Armenian musician Charles Aznavour. For the following 2 minutes, 40 seconds, he soared by way of a pair of quadruple jumps, showcased uncanny nimbleness and style on his step sequence and spins, and finally punctuated the efficiency with an uncharacteristic punch of the air when it ended.

“I do not know what came to visit me,” he mentioned virtually sheepishly. “I don’t usually do stuff like that.”

Certainly, no one has accomplished what Chen did throughout that quick program: His colossal rating of 113.97 factors eclipsed the world file set by longtime Japanese rival Yuzuru Hanyu by greater than two factors, and left him almost six forward of his closest challenger, Yuma Kagiyama, heading into the free skate.

The place, by the way in which, Chen already holds the world file for his 2020 program on the Grand Prix Remaining.

“The factor I like about Nathan is that he’s so humble about all of it,” Boitano, the 1988 Olympic champion, informed The Related Press on Wednesday. “He’s not solely like, the best skater of his technology, however he’s such a terrific particular person and so appreciative of his alternatives. And it’s humorous, as a result of I admire a lot how wonderful he’s and the way he’s so nice, however I don’t know why I can’t get previous the humility he has and the way in which he appreciates his fellow opponents.”

That was evident hours after his historic efficiency in Beijing, when Chen was requested a couple of uncommon stumble by Hanyu that took the two-time defending Olympic champion out of medal competition.

“It doesn’t matter what he does sooner or later, he’ll at all times, at all times be a real determine skating icon, one of many best ever, if not the best ever,” Chen mentioned. “It’s been such a tremendous honor to be alive similtaneously him.”

Seems Chen’s rivals are saying the identical factor about him.

“Nathan had an ideal efficiency, and for any athlete, it might be extraordinarily tough if not inconceivable to win over him. I’m not there but,” mentioned Shoma Uno, who sat in third place after the quick program. “For me to beat Nathan Chen, I’ve to have extremely motivated follow and put together years earlier than, simply as I began to do that 12 months.”

But you’d by no means know that Chen is getting ready to reaching his Olympic dream; his plans after his quick program consisted of strumming his Stratocaster and doing laundry. Nor would you get a lot out of him by asking about his place in historical past, each due to his pure propensity for deference and his tunnel-like, here-and-now perspective.

So, go away it to others who’d know to place his greatness in perspective.

“Not since Dick Button has there been a skater so dominant,” mentioned Hamilton, referring to the one two-time U.S. Olympic champ, who landed the primary triple bounce in competitors and invented the now-standard flying camel spin.

“Loads of it has to do with each males revolutionizing our sport, taking the game to new heights and forcing everybody else to catch up,” Hamilton mentioned. “Button did that in 1948 and ’52. He change the game eternally. With Nathan‘s proficiency on these extraordinarily tough components, and the standard that goes together with that proficiency, he’s simply one of the best on this planet.”

Chen is the primary to land 5 various kinds of quads in competitors; the loop, toe loop, salchow, flip and lutz. He landed seven clear quads on the 2019 Grand Prix Remaining, two in his quick program and 5 in his free skate, one thing by no means accomplished earlier than. And now, he holds the world data for the quick program, free skate and mixed scored.

These final two data might topple Thursday, when Chen performs his entertaining “Rocketman” free skate. This system has 5 deliberate quads, two of them in combos, set by to a medley of music by Elton John.

It ought to function each a celebration and coronation of the following American champion.

“But he’s by no means thought-about himself something greater than a competitor on the identical degree because the others,” Boitano mentioned. “When folks say: ‘Effectively, you’ve bought this within the bag. You’re going to win this for positive,’ he by no means reductions their contribution to the game. He by no means takes as a right that he’s going to win something. He’s only a nice man that method.”