Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 digest: Chen breaks figure skating world record | DW | 08.02.2022

Nathan Chen has had nearly four years to reflect on a difficult experience in Pyeongchang 2018 that saw the heavy favorite fail to complete any of his jumps and finish fifth.

On Tuesday, the multiple world champion went some way to exorcising those demons with a sensational world record breaking performance in the figure skating short program in Beijing. 

The American opened with a perfect quad flip, nailed a triple axel that sometimes causes him problems, then completed his quad flip-triple toe loop combination to stun the crowd, set a mark of 113.97 points and beat the previous record set by longtime rival Yuzuru Hanyu. The Japanese athlete is languishing in eighth place after pulling out in his opening quad attempt during a difficult day.

Chen is now sitting pretty, nearly six points ahead of Yuma Kagiyama in second and nearly 20 ahead of Hanyu, the two-time Olympic champion.

“I was just elated,” said Chen, who helped the U.S. win team silver earlier this week. “At the last Olympics, both of the short programs didn’t go the way I wanted. To finally get an opportunity to skate the programs I wanted feels really good.”

Now, all that’s left is a strong free skate on Thursday for the charismatic Chen to become an Olympic champion. “Every opportunity I get at competitions I should be grateful for, especially the Olympics,” he added.

Gold medals

Matthias Mayer became the first man to win an Alpine skiing gold medal at three consecutive Olympics after winning the super-G. The Austrian, who won gold in downhill in Sochi in 2014 and super-G in Pyeongchang, left nothing to chance.

“I tried to push hard, really hard,” he said. “I knew that I had to go all-in. I tried to push hard to the last gate, and it was good.”

Chinese tennis player Peng Shuaisat with International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach and watched American-born 18-year-old freeskier Eileen Gu, who now competes for China, win gold at the inaugural women’s big air event Tuesday with a stunning jump she had never tried before.

Ester Ledecka made light work of the competition to take gold in the snowboard giant slalom, cruising to a final victory over Austria’s Daniela Ubling. In doing so, Ledecka became the most successful winter Olympian from the Czech Republic. She’ll now switch to skis to try and double up her gold tally, as she did in Pyeongchang.