Chen, Zhou provide highlights and hope

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Hyped as the future of men’s figure skating, Nathan Chen put the sport on notice that his time is now.

Chen dazzled and dominated as he stamped himself as a future Olympic medal contender, connecting on a pair of quads and dominating the competition with a short program record score of 106.39 at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships on Friday.

The 17-year-old from Utah delivered a stunning performance that had the Sprint Center crowd clapping along with his routine and earned him the only standing ovation of the night.

“This is the performance I’ve been looking for all season,” Chen said. “I finally put on a good short program. I hit all the elements I was setting out to do.”

Chen scored nearly 20 points higher than his closest competitor, Ross Miner, and would need a complete collapse Sunday in the men’s free skate program not to walk out of Kansas City with a gold medal.

“It definitely does add a lot of pressure and a little bit of nerves to my skating,” Chen said. “It gives me a lot more excitement. I definitely feel the praise and it feels like this is something I’m able to do. I feel like I’m able to deliver and prove I can do it.”

Chen might not be U.S. skating’s savior, but he could at least fuel the program’s comeback.

“I feel like we’re pushing back up to where we should be,” Chen said. “We’ve kind of stunk a little bit. But I think me and some of the skaters coming up for this event will help put the U.S back on the map.”

Among those might be Palo Alto’s Vincent Zhou, 16. He nailed a quad salchow during his routine and stands third behind Chen and Miner (88.67) with 87.85 points.

Zhou’s career has been beset by injuries, and he said a bad hip has affected his performance this season.

His confidence was sky high following his performance, which came three spots ahead of Chen’s.

“Nathan Chen has always been a few steps ahead of me,” Zhou said. “It just feels really amazing to start closing the gap.”

The championships resume Saturday, with the dance, pairs and women’s free skate.

The women’s leader after the short program is Fremont’s Karen Chen, 17.