American figure skater Nathan Chen has rallied from a fiasco of a short program with a historic free skate at the Pyeongchang Olympics that included an unparalleled six completed quadruple jumps.
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The 18-year-old Chen, a two-time U.S. champion, succumbed to the pressure and massive expectations in Friday's short program. He fell on all of his jumps in the short, plummeting to 17th place out of 24 to advance to the free skate.
"Nathan Chen is still the quad king!"
This is history. @nathanwchen with SIX quads in his men's free skate program. #WinterOlympics #BestOfUS https://t.co/Ldd0aubwzt pic.twitter.com/LrM7LDjArn
— NBC Olympics (@NBCOlympics) February 17, 2018
But in the free skate he nailed virtually every element. He even tried a sixth quad, a loop, but put his hands down on the ice. Still, his 126.86 points for technical virtuosity put him in another stratosphere, and his 215.08 points for the free skate were a personal high.
Chen was guaranteed to rocket up the standings with a 297.35 total, perhaps into the top 10.
