Shaken by a disastrous start to the Games, Team USA regained its momentum after Nathan Chen’s performance. On the short program, the American tallied the most points in skating history, breaking the world record.
America can breathe. After a start that looks like a bad movie (not a single gold medal after five days of competition), the Beijing Games are back in good order for Team USA. The trains finally arrive on time.
On Thursday, Chloe Kim won the Olympic halfpipe title, her second in a row. Bingo. Less than three hours later, Nathan Chen respected his rank as favorite by winning the figure skating gold medal. In prime time in both cases. Shaken by a disastrous start to the Games (only 16 million American viewers for the opening ceremony), the NBC channel is recovering.
Nathan Chen, so. A striking talent. A trajectory rich enough to stifle boredom. A well-made head. On the skates, his technical background and his artistic sense make all the experts agree. Outside, his personal story seems written by the hand of a successful author. Before the Beijing Games, the American press had pinned him at the top of the stars to follow step by step, in the same way as the skier Mikaela Shiffrin or the surfers Chloe Kim and Shaun White. With his Olympic title, advertisers promise him a gilded future.
His name suggests it: Nathan Chen was born in the United States, in Salt Lake City, but of Chinese parents. His father Zhidong and mother Hetty emigrated to Utah in 1988, eleven years before he was born. They start a family – three boys and two girls –, resume medical studies in addition to their job, raise their children according to strict rules. Nathan started on the skates while pursuing an honest career as a gymnast. He learns the piano, tries his hand at the guitar. The kid is eye-catching. Never a wrong step. The family move to California gives a boost to his destiny as a skater.
Online courses, long break and meditation
The ideal athlete, gifted and hardworking. A profile with no blind spot or hidden face. At the PyeongChang Games in 2018, the American pushes the door of the ice rink with the hope of a medal. He is not yet 20 years old, but his recent results plead for him. A year earlier, he became the first skater in history to land five quadruple jumps of a different kind in competition. But his Olympic experience quickly turns into a nightmare. A short program riddled with errors sends him back to the bottom of the rankings, in 17th place. Later, his demonstration in the freestyle brings him back to fifth place, but he stays away from the podium.
“At the time, I thought the Olympics had been a terrible experience.he says. I even came to hate this ordeal. I had to take a step back to realize that I had, despite everything, had a little fun. The experience marked him. It has also transformed its approach to high-level sport. Over the past four years, the American has beefed up his preparation with meditation work. The pandemic forced him to take online courses for a while, before taking a long break to prepare for the Beijing Games.
He took the opportunity to try his hand at tennis, take up the ukulele, train the kids at a club in Connecticut and learn Chinese cooking. “Filling my life with new activities has allowed me to think about something other than skatinghe acknowledges. I have always been very nervous before a competition. I am now a little less.
In Beijing, his short program sent back the hopes of victory of his Japanese rivals, including Yuzuru Hanyu, the double Olympic champion, totally off his skates (8th). The American tallied the most points in skating history, breaking the world record. Not less. In free, Thursday, a copy without the slightest deletion offered him the title without the need to take out the slide rule. “I’m so happy, but it’s gonna take me some time to sort through my emotionshe said when he left the ice. Honestly, I didn’t think skating would ever take me this far.” Then Nathan Chen spoke about the future: “One thing is certain, I’m going to university next August, I’m going to join Yale. For the rest, skating, I don’t know. I have to think about it.” Olympic champion and student at Yale. Class.