Nathan Chen has made Olympics history. On Wednesday night, the American won gold in the men’s figure skating event. Chen is the first American men’s skater to win gold since Evan Lysacek in 2010 and the seventh all-time.
The 22-year-old star finished first and ahead of Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama and Shoma Uno, who took home silver and bronze, respectively. Chen had a total score of 332.60 compared to Kagiyama’s 310.05 and Uno’s 293.
After he secured the gold medal, Chen hugged his coach and mustered enough energy to raise his arms in celebration.
Chen posted a field-leading short-program score of 113.97 on Tuesday, an effort he celebrated with a fist pump. The 218.63 free-skating score he recorded on Wednesday clinched his first Olympic gold medal.
Earlier in these Games, Chen opened the men’s figure skating team competition with a personal-best score of 111.71. His record-breaking performance helped Team USA take silver in that event.
In the 2018 Olympics, Chen made uncharacteristic mistakes that put him in fifth place after a strong start. Since then, Chen has been dominating the wold of men’s figure skating and was a favorite heading into this year’s Games.
Chen has now won gold, silver and bronze in the Olympics.
