Despite fall, dynamic Chen could jump back into medal contention
When Nathan Chen wins an Olympic medal in 10 months — if Nathan Chen wins an Olympic medal in 10 months — he undoubtedly will think back to an unexpected moment, one not of success but uncharacteristic failure, that made it all possible.
That moment occurred Thursday, a minute and a half into his first appearance at the world figure skating championships, when, after successfully landing the two toughest quadruple jumps any skater attempts, he fell on a triple jump — the triple axel, the toughest triple there is — but still, a triple.
“Triples are hard,” 17-year-old Chen said with a laugh. “Triple axel is just not my jump. Quads are really my thing.”
Chen’s mistake did not doom him going into Saturday’s long program. Quite the opposite. He has become such a presence in his sport so quickly that even with the fall, he found himself in sixth place, within striking distance of a medal, not even five points from third.
But the standings also were a wake-up call for the American teenager: Chen’s 97.33 points fell short of Spain’s Javier Fernandez, the defending world champion, who was in the lead with 109.05 points. Shoma Uno of Japan was second with 104.86, and Canadian veteran Patrick Chan was third with 102.13.
If Chen is the future of his sport, it appears the present is trying to hang on for at least a little while longer.
The fall on the triple axel — Chen’s first fall on any kind of jump in competition since December — was the result of an off-kilter en- trance into the only jump in which a skater takes off going forward.
But the mistake’s roots ran deeper. Chen, who trains in Southern California by way of Salt Lake City, had trouble sleeping Wednesday night. A nervousness he wasn’t expecting suddenly gripped him. He fell during the six-minute warm-up, which he later admitted shook him up. He didn’t feel light on his feet, and his coach noticed he was skating slower than usual.
After a spectacular season filled with one historic performance after another, Chen had become the most-talked-about athlete in his sport. And here he was, on figure skating ’s grandest stage before next February’s Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games — and he suddenly realized it.
“The pressure kind of got a little bit to me before I got on,” Chen said. “This is probably the most nervous I’ve been going into an event all season. But it’s great experience for me and something that I’ll have to learn to fix for the long (program).”
Welcome to the big time, young Mr. Chen.
He started off just fine, landing his first quad in combination with a triple toe loop 25 seconds into the 2-minute, 40-second program, then his second quad 25 seconds later. They were his 19th and 20th consecutive quads without a mistake going back to his last fall in December at the Grand Prix Final, an astounding run.
Chen has five quads planned for his long program, more than any of his competitors. Should he land them all, his score will soar. But after the short program, there were hints of something more. Could there be a sixth quad in the 4-minute, 30-second program?
“Yeah, why not?” said his coach, Rafael Arutunian. “Why not? I mean, that’s normal. He’s (a) young kid and he needs to learn to handle that. We are trying to do (a) serious program.”
It’s all there, waiting for him. A clean skate Saturday. A possible world championship medal. And then the Olympic season, with all its possibility.
But he now knows trouble lurks as well, which means the memory of what happened Thursday will be with him every step of the way.
“It’s just something that I’ll have to remember that I did this improperly,” he said, “and make sure that that doesn’t happen again.”