Nathan Chen Had Another Disastrous Performance
Nathan Chen, the 18-year-old Team USA figure skater who, ahead of the Games, was widely believed to be the only American who would medal, had a disastrous short program last night. This follows a devastating performance in last week's team skate, where he fell as well.
In his two minutes and 40 seconds on ice, Chen - nicknamed the "Quad King" for his mastery of quad jumps - fell on his quadruple lutz, could not nail a quad toe loop, and put both of his hands on the ice coming out of his triple axel. All of this led to him not being able to complete his planned jump combination, which further impacted his score, USA Today reports.
This leaves Chen in 17th place going into tomorrow's free skate, essentially eliminating all hopes of medaling for him. After last night, his fellow Americans Adam Rippon and Vincent Zhou landed in seventh and twelfth place respectively.
After coming off the ice, Chen said he was "upset, obviously," and clearly bewildered, the HuffPost notes. “I honestly have never been in this position before, so I don’t really know exactly what to do,” he continued. “I’m going to talk to my team, figure out what the best approach is and try to move on from it.”
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