MIKAELA UPSET
Heavily favored American Shiffrin fails to medal in quest for consecutive golds in the slalom
Mikaela Shiffrin, of the United States, reacts to her time during the second run of the women’s slalomat the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, on Friday. Shiffrin was looking to make history and capture her second straight Olympic gold in the slalom but ended up finishing in fourth place.
Two-time U. S. champion Nathan Chen wilted Thursday under the great expectations leading to the Pyeongchang Games underscoring the tension some young athletes experience when overtaken by immense public interest.
A teenager thrust into the Olympic favorite role has been unable to handle the emotions after he struggled on three jumps in men’s figure skating short program — including an opening fall on a quadruple flip.
The Los Angeles-based skater scored 21.85 points below his season best to finish the short programpoorly a week after stumbling through the same routine in the team event. He has all but been knocked out of medal contention as the competition concludes tonight with the free skate.
Chen, 18, finished behind American teammates Adam Rippon ( seventh place) and Palo Alto’s Vincent Zhou, who became the first athlete to land a quadruple lutz in an Olympic competition. The history-making jump led to a 12th-place finish with the possibility of more to come.
Chen, on the other hand, was expected to battle reigning Olympic and world champion Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan for the gold medal. It had the makings one of the best skating dramas in years.
Until Chen found himself on his butt after the first jump.
“Honestly, it was bad,” he said. “I made as many mistakes as I possibly could have.”
On a day Hanyu soared to music from Chopin, his chief nemesis came unnerved in an Olympic debut that was expected to be a crowning moment. Chen tumbled all the way to 17th place and will face a Himalayan climb to respectability.
“I’ve never been in this spot so I really don’t know what to do,” he said.
Hanyu scored 111.68 points in a winning performance so good he clapped with the
audience at the end after two effortless quadruple jumps. Spain’s Javier Fernandez is second with a score of 107.58 points while Hanyu’s teammate Shoma Uno is third (104.17 points).
Hanyu, 23, came to Korea with questions after suffering an ankle injury this season. Now he has the chance to become the first man to win consecutive Olympic titles in 66 years.
“It’s something that he wants more than anything,” coach Brian Orser said. “It has been amazing how he’s been able to pull this off in such a short amount of time.”
Rippon, the Americans’ elder statesman at 28, scored one for artistry in a 2-minute, 50- second show to “LetMe Think About it.” Rippon lied back on the ice and pumped his fists after a performance without a quadruple jump that earned 87.95 points.
“I want to show the world what I am made of and to show the world why I fell in love with skating,” said Rippon, who helped the United States win the bronze medal at the team event.
Zhou has been an afterthought because of early season struggles that he put behind him last month at the U. S. championships. The Palo Alto teenwas even better Friday when scoring a season-best 84.53 points in a program that included two quadruple jumps and a triple axel.
The big jumps to “Chasing Cars” by Snow Patrol weren’t perfect as Zhou, 17, had to hold onto the landings after the opening lutz. However it appeared, it was a qualified success for the 2017 junior world champion.
Zhou entered the Winter Games filled with confidence after landing jumps with conviction in a six- minute warm-up. Then he sat down and told himself to breathe.
“My entire life ran through my head, everything I’ve done to get here,” Zhou said.
He reflected on his inju- ries and comebacks, how he left the Bay Area to pursue a dream.
“Every single day, just intensity and ambition and lots of stress I put on myself and what other people put on me,” Zhou added. “I tried to live the moment and enjoy, and I did just that. I committed to all my jumps.”
The skater opened with a statement — a quadruple lutz and triple toeloop combination jump. While he was less-than-perfect with a follow-up quadruple flip and triple axel he still got rewarded. Zhou left the ice looking relieved.
Pretty impressive for a skater who left Palo Alto at age 8 with his mom to train in Riverside in what he has called a “blind leap into a hole.”
That jump into an abyss led to the Olympic stage where he boosted his international reputation for the 2022 Beijing Games.