Nathan Chen USA
2018 Olympics free skate
Years from now, skating observers will look back at this free skate from Nathan Chen as the biggest cusp of his career.
In his first Olympics and coming in as one of the favorites, an unnerved Chen had two of the most disappointing short programs of his career. A third subpar program to end his time in PyeongChang - no matter that he walked away with a Team bronze - would have been devastating. Being 17th after the short was not where anyone thought he would be.
I had said it before his free skate here - all Chen needed was to land his first jump and regain the belief that he, indeed, is one of the best in the world. And after hitting that quad lutz to open, he delivered an inspired and historic free skate to win that portion of the event to vault to fifth.
Chen’s short program, though, had the potentially to be an artistic masterpiece. It was at its peak at Skate America - and here’s a bonus look.