Six, count em, SIX quad jumps!

[Ohiogal]

Pride of America, figure skater Nathan Chen!

[Liberty Belle]

1. Amazing! Watch it here:

http://stream.nbcolympics.com/figure-skating-mens-free-skate#%22

He's pullled into first with an astoundingly high score in his long program, after being 13th after a botched short.

I can remember watching men trying to land the first quads in this sport...how far they have come. Commentator said "he spent more time in the air than on the ice!"

[democratisphere]

2. What a performance by Nathan Chen!

[Wwcd]

3. Yes. He took the lead with that too.

18 yrs old.
Proud & happy for him cuz he's had kind of a rough time with his performances up until tonight.

Pretty amazing skater.
Dang! 6 quads!
Think we'll be seeing him in many more Olympics to come.

[onetexan]

5. Yes he certainly redeemed himself

it's clear all the pressure got to him during the team event & short program but the young man is only 18, 3 more olympics in his future! Yay Nathan! This first one is to get the experience under his belt to prepare for the next one in 4 years.

[LisaL]

12. Pressure for sure. Obviously he can do the jumps.

But he couldn't handle the pressure. Unfortunate because he could have easily won a medal, even gold medal. His long program got the best score of all the skaters, beating even the Japanese.

[3catwoman3]

4. I started a separate thread about this, saying how relieved...

...I was for him that he finished strong.

I have said to my husband many times that I am so glad our sons were not world class athletes. They were quite good soccer players, played Div 3 all thru college, and now still play in men's leagues (they are 25 and 28). I was always additionally glad they weren't goalies.

I cannot imagine the stress of watching your kid perform in front of the whole world in any sport, but especially not on the unforgiving surface of an ice rink. Such pressure for all involved.

[Wwcd]

6. I would make a terrible Olympian parent !

[3catwoman3]

7. In one high school soccer match, the coach did put...

...my older son in goal for a shoot out. My son was a forward. I thought the coach had lost his mind, and I almost had to go to the car beause I was afraid I was going to barf. Unbeknowst to me, my son had been spending some time in the net at practices because his knees were bothering him, and he turned out to be fairly good at blocking PKs - better than the regular goalie. He blocked the first shot, made his own, and then blocked 2 more for the win - their first that season.

It was terrifying

[Wwcd]

10. Lol. "I almost had to go to the car.."

That'd be me also.
In the car swearing at the coach, refs, ..

Ha..

[Liberty Belle]

8. Vincent Zhou just landed 5 quads, 4 perfect!

The Americans totally rock tonight. Zhou is now in second, Chen first, so far.

And Adam Rippon is yet to skate.

[Liberty Belle]

9. Unbelievable, final place is 5th for Chen, 6th for Zhou.

The two Japanese skaters and Spanish skater were phenomenal and took the medals, with a Chinese skater in fourth.

All landed multiple quads, though Chen had the most. But others had more footwork and artistry; he's young and can work on that.

[LisaL]

11. The reason Chen didn't get a medal is not footwork or artistry.

His long program got the most points of all the skaters, but he was way behind because of his short program (where he didn't land his jumps) at that point. So his footwork and artistry is already there, but nerves got the best of him in the short program, unfortunately.

[femmocrat]

13. That took tremendous courage to do what he did in that long program.

After two disastrous shorts, he could have totally lost his confidence. He has the heart of a champion. He is only 18 and has the opportunity to go for it again in four years.