Nathan Chen makes a statement with commanding short program in Olympic team event

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Nathan Chen makes a statement with commanding short program in Olympic team event

Nathan Chen’s short program to the Charles Aznavour song “La Boheme” includes a passage with an expressive emotional release, his mouth clenched into a grimace, his eyes afire with the passion and longing of the artist the lyrics describe.

The emotion in that choreographed expression during the team event short program Friday morning at the 2022 Winter Olympics also spoke of a different release than the one Chen needed simply to inhabit the role he was interpreting.

Chen seemed to be letting go of all the frustration and disappointment that had followed his stunningly poor performances in the team event and individual event short programs during his Olympic debut four years ago.

“It feels good to have a short program that I actually skated well in an Olympic experience,” Chen said.

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In pushing each other, Hanyu and Chen have redefined the meaning of figure skating greatness

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In pushing each other, Hanyu and Chen have redefined the meaning of figure skating greatness

The figure skating rivalry between Nathan Chen of the United States and Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan is enduring, but sporadic. Compelling, but infrequent.

Hanyu is the two-time reigning Olympic gold medalist. Chen has won the last three world titles. But they have met in the same individual competition just nine times over six seasons.

And that only makes the rivalry more compelling. Absence makes the heat grow stronger.

Never will it be more intense than next Monday, when Hanyu and Chen begin skating for the men’s singles title at the 2022 Winter Olympics.

What happens next week can only embellish Hanyu’s legacy. By becoming in 2018 the first man to win consecutive Olympic gold medals in singles since Dick Button of the United States in 1952, Hanyu already became a permanent member of a pantheon open to few.

Chen, yet to win an individual Olympic medal, is seeking a career-defining singles gold. Even if he gets it, Chen understands his rival’s place in the sport’s history will remain distinct.

“He is in a completely different status than I am as a skater,” Chen told me before this season began. “I will always respect that.”

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Nathan Chen’s performance will be likely measure of U.S. figure skating results at 2022 Winter Olympics

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Nathan Chen’s performance will be likely measure of U.S. figure skating results at 2022 Winter Olympics

Four years ago, the U.S. figure skating team had its worst results ever at the Winter Olympics.

The 2022 team named after the U.S. Championships ended Sunday could do better than 2018 – although it may not be a substantial improvement, and the assessment of it will depend largely on Nathan Chen’s performance in men’s singles.

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Brilliance at nationals unsurprisingly not enough to earn Ilia Malinin an Olympic spot

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Brilliance at nationals unsurprisingly not enough to earn Ilia Malinin an Olympic spot

Nathan Chen won his sixth straight national figure skating championship Sunday, a feat unmatched since Dick Button won his sixth of seven straight in 1951.

Ilia Malinin finished second, but he upstaged Chen and everyone else in the competition, both in the short program and the free skate.

That Malinin’s two stunning performances still did not earn the 17-year-old a place on the U.S. team for next month’s Winter Olympics in Beijing was not really surprising, given selection criteria that broadly favored results in senior level events the past two seasons.

In a decision complicated by the free skate performances in Nashville, the U.S. Figure Skating selection committee gave the three men’s singles spots to Chen, Vincent Zhou and Jason Brown.

“I think all three of us have really shown over the past two years why we deserve this spot,” Chen said.

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Present and future shock in sparkling nationals short program, with Ilia Malinin bursting into Olympic contention

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Present and future shock in sparkling nationals short program, with Ilia Malinin bursting into Olympic contention

In a span of less than 15 minutes, everyone watching the men’s short program at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships saw a summary of the last decade in men’s singles skating.

You had a 17-year-old, Ilia Malinin, whose Instagram handle is @quadg0d, burst onto the senior nationals scene with a demonstration of why that choice of sobriquet was not self-aggrandizing and how fast a mastery of big jumps can push a skater toward podiums at significant events. He is a young man for these times in the sport.

And next you had a 27-year-old, Jason Brown, who competed in his first senior nationals 11 years ago, using his mastery of movement, expression and edge work as he fights to stay on podiums without the big jumps that bring big rewards in the sport’s judging system. His skating is timeless and yet relatively out of fashion on contemporary score sheets.

Malinin and Brown each was brilliant in his own way during a competition Saturday in which the overall level was extraordinary, with Nathan Chen and Vincent Zhou taking command at the top and others, like Jimmy Ma and Camden Pulkinen, earning career-best scores with performances that commanded full attention.

“That was a pretty incredible competition,” Zhou said, “not just in U.S. history but in relation to ISU international competitions. Definitely an insane, high-level event.”

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