THREE-TIME U.S. world champion Nathan Chen added Olympic gold to his glistening CV with a triumphant skate Thursday at the Olympic Winter Games. The reigning world champion was near his stirring best inside the Capital Indoor Stadium at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, skating to Elton John’s “Rocketman” for his free skate and blasting to a score of 218.63 for the program, which launched him to 332.60 points overall. Japan’s Kagiyama Yuma (310.05) and Uno Shoma (293.00) rounded out the podium, going two-three to give their country two men’s singles medals at the Games for a second Olympics in a row. Reigning and two-time Olympic champion Hanyu Yuzuru finished fourth (283.21). Chen, 22, had set the world record in the short program, skating to a five-point lead over Kagiyama, the Youth Olympic Game Lausanne 2020 champion, who was skating in his first Games. Chen becomes the seventh U.S. man to win an Olympic gold in figure skating, Evan Lysacek being the most recent at Vancouver 2010. It’s the eighth for Team USA in the discipline overall, with Richard Button have won two — in 1948 and 1952. “I mean it’s a whirlwind right now — everything is happening so fast,” a breathless Chen told U.S. broadcaster NBC. “That program is really fun to skate. At the end, I really just had a blast out there. When I finished the last jump, I thought I was pretty close [to the win].” “You can’t imagine how it feels,” he said of his Olympic-winning moment. “This means the world to me. I have the family connection [to Beijing, where his mother was born]. It’s amazing to have this opportunity to do it here.” Chen had won three world titles leading up to Beijing, in 2018, 2019 and 2021, the world championships being cancelled in 2020 due to the global pandemic. His 10-event international win streak lasted from March 2018 through to October 2021, when he placed third at Skate America. The blip played part in Chen moving back to his programs from the 2019-20 season, including “Rocketman” — as well as “La Boheme” in the short program. His gold is a redemption of sorts: He finished 17th in the short program at Pyeongchang 2018, rebounding to win the free skate and place fifth overall. Much of his Olympic quad leading up to Beijing he was surrounded by chatter of, “Can he win the Olympic gold?” Meanwhile, it had been a disappointing short program here for Hanyu, where he finished eighth after popping his opening quadruple Salchow attempt. The Japanese superstar staged a comeback in the free, however, scoring a 188.06 and holding onto the lead into the final three skaters, but ending up fourth place, scoring a 283.21 total. In the opening jump of his free, Hanyu, 27, fell on his historic quadruple Axel attempt, under-rotating the never-done-before element in his attempt to make more history. “I honestly left everything out there,” Hanyu said in Japanese. “I have nothing left to give. I was at top gear right from the start and thought I rotated the Axel well. I went for it, and it’s something I’ll cherish forever.” The top six was rounded out by Cha Junhwan (282.38) of South Korea and Chen’s American teammate, Jason Brown (281.24). It is a third Olympic medal for Uno, who was silver medalist behind Hanyu in 2018 and helped Japan to a team medal here. Kagiyama earned his second in just four days, having been on team Japan, too. Kagiyama celebrated in the “Kiss and Cry” with his father and coach, Masakazu, who is a two-time Olympic figure skater himself (1992 and 1994). The two had beaming smiles under their masks as Kagiyama’s 201.93 came through — the only skater other than Chen to break the 200-point mark. (Olympics.com) | 