U.S. champion Nathan Chen emerges as Olympic medal contender
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Nathan Chen’s fifth quadruple jump came along unexpectedly Sunday, a little past the halfway point of a long program that will go down in figure skating history as one for the ages.
It wasn’t exactly a game-time decision to throw in the fifth quad, but it wasn’t exactly planned either. Chen is a prodigious skating talent, and just 17, so perhaps that explains it. The kid clearly can do what he wants, then with a shy grin call it all “amazing.”
No one in the competitive history of this sport, which stretches back to the late 1800s, had landed more than four quads in one 4-minute 30-second program. Chen himself landed four just at last year’s nationals. But four was it. No one had landed five — until 2 minutes and 45 seconds into Chen’s long program at the 2017 U.S. national championships, when he nonchalantly decided to turn a planned triple loop into a quad salchow after already landing four other quads in the first minute and a half of his program.
When his skate blade grabbed ahold of the ice and he realized he had safely returned to earth, the 5-6, 135-pound Chen had accomplished much more than land one last quad to easily win his first national title at the senior (Olympic) level. He also had sent an unmistakable message to every male skater in every rink in every corner of the skating world with little more than a year to go until the 2018 Winter Olympic Games:
He now is a contender for the men’s Olympic gold medal in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
“I believe it’s possible, yeah,” Chen said. “It’s something that is still in the distance for me, and there’s so much room I have to improve on to make myself at that level, but I think it’s definitely possible.”
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This concept would have been impossible for U.S. Figure Skating officials to fathom even a couple of months ago. Over the past half-dozen years, U.S. men have basically watched the world pass them by. As more top international male skaters landed quads, U.S. men found themselves extolling the virtues of the artistic side of the sport, saying jumping was not everything. Translation: they couldn't consistently land quads.
Even Evan Lysacek, the last U.S. Olympic men’s gold medalist, won his title in Vancouver in 2010 without a quad. Since Lysacek won the 2009 world championship, 21 world medals — gold, silver and bronze — have been given out in the men’s event. The United States hasn’t won a one of them.
That could change in two months at the world championships in Helsinki, where Chen will be a strong contender to win a medal, possibly gold. Why not? Anything seems possible for him.
This was a good national championships to be named Chen. Another 17-year-old prodigy named Chen — Karen, no relation — won the women’s title with two flawless performances in the short and long programs. She certainly could be in the mix for a world medal, although she will be overshadowed in Helsinki by a more experienced and decorated teammate.
That's 25-year-old Ashley Wagner, the reigning world silver medalist and 2014 Olympic team bronze medalist who has spun one of the most compelling stories of survival and triumph in this unforgiving sport, rising to the occasion yet again over the weekend to finish in the top three in the nation for the seventh time in 10 years.
By winning the silver medal here, Wagner, a three-time national champion, became what is believed to be the oldest U.S. women’s medalist since before World War II.
Even though she ended up in second place to Chen by 2 ½ points, Wagner will lead the way for three American women (20-year-old newcomer Mariah Bell finished third) into the world championships.
“Right now, you are looking at something that is very exciting for U.S. figure skating,” Wagner said. “I think to have a fresh crop of young girls, someone who will take over once the veterans retire, I think that is something that is so exciting for U.S. figure skating and that’s something that we really haven’t had a glimpse of for the past couple of years.”
She said that on Saturday. Once the men skated on Sunday, she could have said it again.