Chen in charge chasing fifth national title in row
staff and wire reports
Nathan Chen miss.
As he has done since his last loss at the Pyeongchang Olympics — yes, nearly three years ago — Chen was nearly perfect and rather playful in winning the short program Saturday at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Las Vegas.
Seeking a fifth straight national title, something no man has done since Dick Button from 1946 to ’52, Chen put out the most difficult routine that any man anywhere attempts. He hit a quadruple lutz, triple axel and an excellent quad fliptriple toe loop combination in scoring 113.92 points.
“I’m thrilled with the short program today,” the two-time world gold medalist said. “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.”
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.
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.”
Alexa Knierim
new partner, Brandon Frazier, won pairs in their first nationals as a team. Ice dance went to Madison Hubbell and Zach Donohue
for the third time.
Earlier, national champion Bradie Tennell and third-place finisher Karen Chen were selected by U.S. Figure Skating for the world championships team. conditioning, to take over the same program, which it believed wasn’t up to par the last two football seasons.
“His knowledge and passion for developing studentathletes to reach their full potential is well recognized by his peers and has made him a highly respected coach in the field,” coach Clay Helton said in a statement. “The system he brings has helped produce teams that compete and thrive at the highest level of college football, and we are confident he will make an immediate impact on our program and student-athletes.”
USC still has one opening left to fill on its staff, an offensive line coach.
— Ryan Kartje
McNair,
Three coronavirus cases were detected from charter flights carrying tennis players, coaches and officials to Melbourne for the Australian Open, forcing 47 players into strict hotel quarantine. Health authorities said two positive cases emerged from a charter flight from L.A.
Nevada Las Vegas point guard Mar vin Coleman will miss the rest of the season because of a stress fracture in his right leg. ... Howard and Memphis canceled games this week because of health and safety concerns.
Max Holloway
Calvin Kattar
Jordan
Hugues Fabrice Zango broke the world indoor triple jump record with an effort of 18.07 meters on his sixth and final attempt in France. ... Kaillie Humphries won her debut race in the Women’s Monobob World Series.