Nathan Chen is one step closer to redemption and his first ever Olympic gold medal.
The 22-year-old American took the top spot in the men’s short program on Tuesday with a score of 113.97, the highest ever mark for a short program. Chen had set a personal best earlier at the 2022 Winter Olympics with a score of 111.71 during the figure skating team event on Thursday.
Along with the improvement over his previous best, the score also exorcized demons from the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics. Chen placed 17th in the short program at the previous Games, putting him so far behind the pack that even a record-setting free skate could not get him a spot at the podium.
Now, it is Chen leading the pack.
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Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama placed second with a score of 108.12. Next on the leaderboard is Japan’s Shoma Uno, the reigning Olympic silver medalist, with a mark of 105.90.
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The biggest story for Japan coming out of the men’s short program was Yuzuru Hanyu. The two-time defending Olympic gold medalist fell all the way down to eighth place after an early miscue damaged his technical score. Hanyu finished with a mark of 95.15, over 15 points below his score at the PyeongChang Games. He had the best score in the previous two Olympic short programs on his way to consecutive golds.
One other name to monitor on the leaderboard is Team USA’s Jason Brown. He is making his second Olympic appearance after first competing in 2014, when he placed sixth in the short program with a score of 86.00. On Tuesday, he was the last skater to take the ice and earned a score of 97.24.
Here is a look at the full standings for the men’s short program:
- Nathan Chen, United States: 113.97
- Yuma Kagiyama, Japan: 108.12
- Shoma Uno, Japan: 105.90
- Junhwan Cha, South Korea: 99.51
- Morisi Kvitelashvili, Georgia: 97.98
- Jason Brown, United States: 97.24
- Evgeni Semenenko, ROC: 95.76
- Yuzuru Hanyu, Japan: 95.15
- Keegan Messing, Canada: 93.24
- Kevin Aymoz, France: 93.00
- Jin Boyang, China: 90.98
- Daniel Grassl, Italy: 90.64
- Matteo Rizzo, Italy, 88.63
- Adam Siao Him Fa, France: 86.74
- Mark Kondratiuk, ROC: 86.11
- Deniss Vasiljevs, Latvia: 85.30
- Brendan Kerry, Australia: 84.79
- Vladimir Litvintsev, Azerbaijan: 84.15
- Donovan Carrillo, Mexico: 79.69
- Nikolaj Majorov, Sweden: 78.54
- Konstantin Milyukov, Belarus: 78.49
- Ivan Shmurato, Ukraine: 78.11
- Andrei Mozalev, ROC: 77.05
- Lukas Britschgi, Switzerland: 76.16
- Mychal Brezina, Czech Republic: 75.19
- Alexei Bychenko, Israel: 68.01
- Sihyeong Lee, South Korea: 65.69
- Aleksandr Selevko, Estonia: 65.29
- Roman Sadovsky, Canada: 62.77
One notable name who was absent from Monday’s competition is Vincent Zhou. The 21-year-old American was forced to withdraw after testing positive for COVID-19. He was a part of Team USA’s silver-winning performance in the figure skating team event, where he placed third out of five athletes in the men’s free skate.
Men’s singles concludes with the free skate on Wednesday beginning at 8:30 p.m. ET. Only the top 24 skaters from the short program advance to the free skate.
