Winter Olympics 2022 - ‘A whirlwind’ - Nathan Chen overwhelmed by dream journey to Olympic gold

ByRichard Newman

Updated 10/02/2022 at 09:10 GMT

Nathan Chen dominated the singles event, doing the damage in the short programme when he set a new world record, before he followed that up with a clean free skate, landing all five of his quad jumps to the Elton John ‘Rocketman’ soundtrack. Yuzuru Hanyu once again had a difficult day and finished outside of the medals. Watch every moment of the Games on discovery+.

Nathan Chen says he never imagined he could become Olympic champion, after fulfilling his figure skating dream with what turned out to be a routine gold in Beijing.

The American’s much-hyped battle with Yuzuru Hanyu never materialised, with the double gold medallist faulting in both disciplines. He was unable to fully execute the much spoken about quadruple axel, having fallen in the short programme. The Japanese great simply rounded up his campaign by saying “it wasn’t fun at all”.

Chen was largely flawless, delivering a world record in the opening event before he landed all five of his quad jumps to the songs of Elton John during the free skate to score 332.60, adding the Olympic title to his three World Championship successes.

Figure Skating

‘There's no sadness’ - Figure skating legend Hanyu retires

19/07/2022 at 16:37

“It’s just a whirlwind, everything is happening so fast,” Chen told NBC, who admitted his victory meant even more by achieving it in China.

“Just so happy. It means the world. My mum was born here. It’s amazing to have this opportunity. I can’t even describe it, you can’t even imagine what it might feel like but it’s just amazing.”

Chen was living with the demons of making multiple mistakes during his routines at PyeongChang 2018, which meant he missed out on an individual title.

"I never really thought that I'd be able to actually make it this far in my career,” he said.

‘Destroyed’ – Hanyu goes for broke but finishes ‘skating for pride’

I'd always, of course, dreamed about making an Olympics and winning the Olympics, but I was like, that's hard, I don't know if I can make that happen.

Chen paid tribute to his coach, Rafael Artyunyun, for helping him get this far - saying he has been more than just a mentor for his family.

“My mum and I grew up quite poor. We really didn't have much money,” he said.

“She would just scrap together some dollars to try to pay Raf, and Raf obviously knew about the situation and thanks to the kindness of his heart, was able to just continue taking me in, and taking as much money as we could provide him."

Chen has also won team silver, but continuing uncertainty about the Russian Olympic Committee’s victory may mean he returns home as a double gold medallist.

• Beijing 2022 Olympic Games: Schedule, big names, key events and more
• Chen wins figure skating gold after Hanyu falls attempting quad axel

- - -

Watch every moment of Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 on discovery+

Figure Skating

Two-time world champion Hanyu calls press conference sparking retirement speculation

18/07/2022 at 10:10

World Championships

World Championships will be ‘much more interesting’ with competition so open – Savchenko

23/03/2022 at 08:46

World Championships

World Figure Skating Championships 2022 - Are Hanyu and Chen competing? Who will challenge?

22/03/2022 at 09:29