Nathan Chen smashes world record to take lead in Olympic men's short program

AT THE GAMES — Nathan Chen's redemption tour at the Winter Olympics continued Monday night.

The 22-year-old Salt Lake City native continued skyrocketing to the top of his sport with an electric men's short program at the Capital Indoor Stadium in Beijing.

He needed it, too — for a variety of reasons.

Japan's Kagiyama Yuma had just smashed his personal best with a massive 108.12 that sent the crowd at the ice arena into a frenzy. The 18-year-old Japanese international soared up the leaderboard with his performance, surging past country mate Shoma Uno, who had a personal-best score of 105.90, and Korea's Junwan Cha, who added a 99.51 — which also briefly topped the leaderboard.

Chen beat them all.

The Ivy League college student who took an academic deferment at Yale to participate in the games skated to Charles Aznavour's "La Boheme" for the second time in Beijing, and left any memories of PyeongChang behind with a 113.97 — beating his previous career high by more than two points and setting a world record for the men's short program.

The former West High teenager who grew up in the shadow of the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City opened his routine with a perfect quad flip, cruised through a triple axel with ease, and finished with a quad lutz-triple toe loop that added 21 points to his final score. Chen then added an enthusiastic fist pump and beamed as he exited the ice before receiving a technical score of 65.98.

His face said it all; he knew his score would be big.

"I was just elated," Chen told NBC after his run. "Last Olympics, both short programs didn't go the way that I wanted. To finally get an opportunity to skate the way that I wanted means a lot."

"I'm just really happy to be here. I'm so happy with how that program went," he added moments later in the mixed zone with KSL-TV.

"Scores aren't always in my control, of course. All I can try to do is the best that I can in that moment … and I'm happy I was able to do that."

When Chen is on, he's practically unbeatable. On Monday night (Tuesday in China), Nathan Chen was on — and he'll take a 5-point lead into Wednesday's individual men's figure skating finale, the free skate at 6:30 p.m. MST (Thursday at 9:30 a.m. in Beijing).

"When he's on his game, when he skates his best, he is virtually unbeatable," figure skating legend Scott Hamilton told NBC Sports of Chen. "If he skates his best, no one can touch him."

Two-time gold medalist Hanyu Yuzuru — who was considered Chen's biggest rival for the gold medal — struggled in his short program, finishing with a 95.15 for fourth place. Yuzuru, who held the world record prior to Tuesday in China, finished in eighth place after the short program. American Jason Brown posted a 97.24 for sixth in the short program.

American Vincent Zhou, who was also expected to contend for a medal, withdrew from the competition a day before the short program after testing positive for COVID-19.

The short program continued Chen's run of redemption in the Winter Olympics, one that began four years ago when he struggled in PyeongChang, botching all three jump attempts in the team short program that including a particularly hard fall on a triple axel. Chen helped rally the Americans to a bronze-medal finish, but the disappointment since then has been palpable as he's fought to make it back to Beijing.

Still, the finish put all sorts of pressure on Chen's shoulders for the 2022 Winter Games. Not that the Yale undergraduate would ever admit to it.

For Chen, this week's performances weren't about exorcising past demons, and the three-time reigning world champion never backed down from the constant questions of such from media in the mixed zone of the Chinese capitol city about channeling his frustrations from Korea into his performance in China.

"What happened in 2018 definitely helped me grow and learn," Chen told KSL-TV. "I learned a lot from that mistake. So getting another chance, I didn't want to do that same error again."

Since 2018, Chen has been on a tear. He won his 10th U.S. championship, including six senior titles, before departing for Beijing. In all, Chen went 1,344 days without tasting defeat from 2018-21 after the scare in PyeongChang as he's racked up 40 wins across all competitions.

In Friday's team short program, he was at his best, safely landing a triple axel before executing some of the most difficult elements of his career — a quad lutz, followed by a triple toe loop combination — for bonus points. It led to a 111.71 score, a career high and nearly a point above his previous top mark scored in the Grand Prix Final in 2019.

His first-place finish in the program gave Team USA 10 points, and briefly landing atop the standings before finishing second.

"Any time you skate a good program, whether it's in practice or competition, it feels good, so I'm pretty happy right now," Chen told Team USA after the team event. "I've certainly had a lot of competitions since (PyeongChang), so my routine hasn't changed too much. I didn't change anything specifically for the Games, just stick to what feels good. Overall try to stay present, try to stay happy, try to enjoy this Games experience as much as I can."

Here's a brief look at other recent performances by Team USA athletes with ties to Utah.

50 years later, another Cochran medals on slopes

Former Westminster College student Ryan Cochran-Siegle narrowly avoided a big crash on a training run before capping a silver-medal journey Tuesday in the men's super-G.

The 29-year-old Vermont native won Team USA's first medal in Alpine skiing in Beijing, and he did it 50 years after his mother Barbara Cochran won a gold medal in slalom skiing at the 1972 Olympics in Sapporo.

"Getting an Olympic medal is definitely a dream," an emotional Cochran-Siegle told NBC after his run. "It'd be pretty cool."

Cochran-Siegle narrowly missed the gold medal, too, finishing just .04 behind Austrian star Matthias Mayer. Aleksander Aamodt Kilde of Norway claimed bronze.

Park City teen makes men's moguls finals

Park City freeestyle skier Nick Page finished fifth in men's moguls Sunday, nearly finding the podium after the 189year-old debutant produced a career-best final run of 78.90, including 25.68 in time.

"I don't even know a word for it right now, but it was really special," Page said after his run. "To think about all the work that I've been doing since last March when the season ended – I mean the last four years it's been on my mind – that 20-second window. I was going up the lift for that last run thinking, 'Man, this is it, this is what I've worked for, for so long.'"

Fellow Utahn Cole McDonald was eliminated in the first final, finishing 14th with a final score of 75.78.

Mogulist Kauf wins career-first medal

Salt Lake City resident Jaelin Kauf won Team USA's second individual medal of the Winter Games early Sunday morning when she struck silver in women's moguls.

The Alta, Wyoming native finished her medal-round run in 26.37 seconds, adding a backflip mute grab on her first jump and finishing with a backflip iron cross to add a score of 80.28.

"The biggest thing I learned and what I was going for this Olympics was to go out and try to win every round. Just leave it out there 100%," Kauf told NBC after her final run. "That's exactly what I did."

It's the 25-year-old Kauf's first-ever Olympic medal after finishing seventh in moguls four years ago in PyeongChang.

Biney out early in short-track quarterfinals

University of Utah student Maame Biney made history well before her quarterfinal elimination early Monday morning at the Capital Indoor Stadium.

The 22-year-old from Reston, Virginia, who currently lives and trains and Salt Lake City, finished third in the second quarterfinal of the women's 500-meter short track, narrowly missing the finals after crashing with Hungary's Petra Jaszapati near the start of the race.

Originally born in Ghana, Biney became the first Black woman to compete for Team USA in short track when she made her Olympic debut four years ago and was a potential medal contender after squeezing into the quarterfinals with a top third-place time a preliminary heat.

"It is what it is, and it already happened, I can't change it," Biney told Team USA. "I've been through lots of therapy to help me through situations like this, and I think I'm handling it a lot better than I would have two years ago or even six months ago."

"I'm just really happy to be here and even skate as well as I did," she added. "I got a season's best 500-meter two days ago (in a qualifying heat), so I'm pretty happy about that."

Salt Lake City resident Brittany Bowe finished 10th in the women's 1,500 meters. University of Utah student Andrew Heo placed fifth in the men's 1,000-meter short track final.

Contributing: Alex Cabrero, KSL-TV

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