Four-time champ Chen out front
Strong program gives him 6.13-point edge headed to free skate
Nathan Chen doesn’t miss. As he has done since his last loss at the Pyeonchang Olympics — yes, nearly three years ago — the dynamic Chen was nearly perfect and rather playful in winning the short program at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships on Saturday.
Seeking a fifth straight national title, something no man has done since Dick Button from 1946-52 with seven, Chen put out the most difficult routine that any man anywhere attempts. He hit a quadruple lutz, triple axel and an excellent quad flip-triple toe loop combination in scoring 113.92 points.
“I’m thrilled with the short program today,” said the twotime world gold medalist. “I made a couple little bobbles on the landings and wish I had skated a little bit cleaner but overall I’m really happy with the program.
“The season, this whole year, I mean last year and leading into this year, has just been crazy and everything is just so unexpected. The fact that we’re all here, that we’re all healthy, that we’re able to do this is just incredible.”
Alexa Knierim and her new partner, Brandon Frazier, won pairs in their first nationals as a team.
Chen’s fellow 2018 Olympian Vincent Zhou put the pressure on by nailing a quad lutz-triple toe loop combination with his arms raised above his head, a solo quad salchow and a triple axel, all as smooth as freshly swept ice.
Zhou, who skipped much of last season, benefited from that break. He also changed coaches, then finished second to Chen at Skate America in the fall; fought off some ankle and back injuries; and on Saturday looked calm, relaxed and at his peak in setting a career best at 107.79 points.
“A score like that didn’t seem like an impossibility in my head. I knew that if I got the job done I was very capable of that,” Zhou said. “At the beginning of this year at a small, local competition, in Colorado, I scored 103 with a clean program. That was way before Skate America, that was way before I put all this effort into developing the quality of everything: my landings, my spins, my choreography. So I know that with that much room to grow I could definitely score a couple points higher than 103.”
“But the whole year was just about not being too hard about specifically points but rather just keeping my head down and working to get myself to the point where if I skated like I did in practice, if I got my job done, then that would be very possible.”
Later Saturday was the free dance.