Nathan Chen acquired the U.S. determine skaters off to a quick begin — and ready to vie for a gold medal this weekend — within the crew competitors on the Winter Olympics in Beijing.
The three-time reigning males’s world champion gained redemption Friday, after a disastrous 2018 Olympic efficiency, by posting the most effective rating within the brief program to steer Workforce USA to an early first-place lead with 28 factors. That’s two forward of the favored Russian Olympic Committee squad and 7 greater than China, the host nation.
The ladies’s brief program is slated to happen Sunday morning in Beijing, airing dwell on NBC on Saturday night time (8:30 p.m. Jap) as a result of 13-hour time distinction. The highest-five scoring nations will advance to the free-skate portion — starting with the boys’s competitors later Saturday — earlier than medals will probably be determined the next night time.
“We will stroll away with a medal, for positive. What coloration? It’s laborious to say,” mentioned Chen, who's the gold medal favourite within the particular person occasion starting Tuesday morning in Beijing (Monday night time ET). “However I think about my teammates, and I do know they’re going to do the most effective they will do.”
The 22-year-old Chen is predicted to get replaced within the free program of the crew competitors by both Jason Brown or Vincent Zhou so he can think about his quest for his first profession particular person gold medal.
On the Pyeongchang Olympics in 2018, Chen fell a number of instances and completed a disappointing fourth within the brief program within the crew occasion — and fifth individually — though he and the American squad introduced dwelling a bronze medal.
“I believe you study probably the most out of your errors. And I actually discovered quite a bit from that competitors,” Chen mentioned. “I don’t assume I’d be capable to be right here the place I'm now with out having had that have. So I believe moderately than that being a demon, it was a really useful studying expertise.”
The Utah native was flawless within the brief program, touchdown two quadruple jumps — together with one in a triple-axel mixture — to submit a rating of 111.71. That represents the very best registered in males’s worldwide competitors this season to simply defeat reigning Olympic silver medalist Shoma Uno of Japan.
“It feels nice to have the ability to have a brief program that I truly skated nicely, at an Olympic expertise,” mentioned Chen, who's taking a depart of absence from his junior 12 months at Yale. “As we’ve seen since 2018, even when somebody doesn’t have the most effective skate, we've got an extremely sturdy crew to again us all up.
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“That’s actually the case this time round. I’m comfortable I did my half and skated pretty much as good as I can.”
Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue additionally completed first within the rhythm dance, whereas the pairs crew of Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier posted a robust third-place brief program.
Chen didn't take part within the Opening Ceremonies later Friday as a consequence of COVID-19 considerations and to focus on the pending particular person completion.
“I already did it as soon as, and [it will be] shut proximity with lots of people,” he mentioned. “I’m positive will probably be protected, however I compete in a pair extra days, so at this level, [I’ll just] give attention to that.”
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