US Men's Olympic Figure Skating 2022: Short Program Top Scorers, Highlights
In the men's figure skating short program at the Winter Olympics in Beijing on Tuesday (Monday ET), Team USA's Nathan Chen recorded the top score of 113.97 in a history-making performance.
It was the highest men's short program score ever across any competition, surpassing Yuzuru Hanyu's 111.82 at the 2020 Four Continents Championships.
Japan's Yuma Kagiyama came second with 108.12, while his teammate Shoma Uno finished third with 105.90. The top five was rounded out by Korea's Junhwan Cha (99.51) and Georgia's Morisi Kvitelashvili (97.98).
Chen found a way to improve on his impressive performance in the short program during the team event, which earned a score of 111.71. The three-time reigning world champion was intent on making up for his fourth-place finish in the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Chen did just that with a majestic run that was perfectly executed. He pumped his fist in the air after his run in a rare show of emotion.
Kagiyama, the 2021 World Championships silver medalist, solidified himself as a dark horse for the gold in Beijing. The 18-year-old put forth a strong performance that placed him ahead of Uno.
Uno, a 2018 Olympic silver medalist, was the first skater of the night to earn a score above 100. The 24-year-old put himself in a great position to potentially earn the first Olympic gold medal of his career.
Team USA's Jason Brown was competing in his first Olympics in eight years after failing to qualify in 2018. He earned a personal-best score of 97.24 to place in sixth. Brown finished fourth at the Sochi Games in 2014.
Japan's Yuzuru Hanyu, the two-time reigning Olympic gold medalist, scored 95.15 in a surprising performance. He suffered a major setback when he missed his first jump. He said afterward that he felt his skate dig into a hole when he went for the jump. Hanyu sits in eighth place and will have an uphill battle to try to complete the three-peat.
Hanyu showed off a quadruple axel in his practice session, so it's possible that he breaks it out in the free skate. That jump is four-and-a-half revolutions and has never been landed successfully in competition.
In all, 24 skaters qualified for the final Thursday (Wednesday ET). Tuesday night's score will be added with Thursday's score to determine which skaters will earn the three spots on the podium.
