Who Is Nathan Chen? 17-Year-Old Wins US Figure Skating Title After Landing Record 5 Quadruple Jumps

Nathan Chen accomplished a record-setting short program to win the U.S. figure skating title at Kansas City on Sunday, keeping the country’s hopes for an Olympic podium finish alive after a seven-year medal drought.

Chen, 17, became the country’s youngest men’s figure skating champion in 51 years after he executed a near-perfect act featuring five quadruple jumps. Performing to “The Polovtsian Dances,” Chen is the first skater in the world to land five clean quadruple jumps in a competition.

“That was an amazing performance. I’m really happy with what I did,” said Chen, according to the Associated Press. “Component-wise, I kind of faltered a little bit. That stuff happens when you're pushing these secondary elements to the max. It's definitely something that I'm looking forward to working on improve for worlds.”

Surpassing the previous best of 274.98 points, Chen’s record-breaking score stood at 318.47 points, with a winning margin of 55.44 points (the previous best was 32.71).

“I believe it’s possible, yeah,” Chen said, addressing the possibility of bagging an Olympic gold at the games in PyeongChang, South Korea in 13 months. “It’s still in the distance for me. There’s so much room I have to improve to make myself at that level, but I think it’s definitely possible.”

The youngest of five children, Chen’s parents emigrated from Beijing, and the Salt Lake City-native started skating at age 3 on a 2002 Olympic practice rink. As a 10-year-old, Chen was the youngest skater at the U.S. Championships seven years ago, winning the novice division.

After being forced off the ice for five and a half months after a hip surgery, Chen tried all five quadruple jumps at his first two events this season, falling twice in each go.

“Life often tests us, it puts us through examinations, and Nathan gets all sorts of scrutiny from it, too,” NBC quoted his coach Rafael Arutyunyan as saying recently. “But this young man walks out of all such pressing situations as the winner. He behaves like a real man.”

Vincent Zhou, 16, and Jason Brown, 22, came in second and third at the U.S championship, while former champion Adam Rippon was ruled out before the competition after suffering from a broken bone in his foot, which effectively ended his season.