BEIJING, China — American figure skater Nathan Chen won gold Thursday with a rousing performance of his "Rocketman" free skate, drawing cheers from the limited crowd of spectators at the Winter Olympics.
The 22-year-old's win in Beijing makes him the seventh U.S. men's skater to step atop the podium, and it caps a four-year journey that started after his medal hopes were dashed at the 2018 Pyeongchang games.
After a historic short program in which he recorded the highest score ever at 113.97, Chen followed it up with an incredible 218.63-point free skate.
His total score of 332.60 bested Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama who earned silver (310.05) and Japan’s Shoma Uno who claimed bronze (293.00).
Chen’s gold is the first by an American man in the singles competition since Evan Lysacek’s at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.
HIs teammate Jason Brown finished in sixth with 184.00 points, for a total of 281.24.
Watch Nathan Chen's free skate program
With his performances in Beijing, Chen found redemption from his first Olympic experience — he entered the 2018 Olympics as a gold medal favorite but lost his shot at the podium after multiple mistakes and a fall in his short program. He recovered to become the first skater to land six quads in a single program, finished fifth at the Olympics, and won his first world title a month later before going undefeated for nearly four years.
Chen is the youngest of five children born to Chinese immigrants and he first tried skating on a practice rink built for the 2002 Salt Lake Games.
He has completed two years of schooling at Yale University, where he is studying statistics and data science.
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