It was true in 2017. It was true in 2018. And if the short program at the 2019 GEICO U.S. Figure Skating Championships is any indication, it's true in 2019.
It's Nathan Chen's world, and we're all just living in it.
The two-time reigning U.S. champion earned the highest score for a men's short program in U.S. Championships history on Saturday, 113.42 points, leading the field by nearly 13 points heading into the free skate. Jason Brown is second with 100.52 points, while Vincent Zhou is right behind in third with 100.25.
At the top of the all-time U.S. Championships men's short program leaderboard, Chen beat himself (106.39 in 2017) and himself (104.45 in 2018).
"I'm pretty happy," Chen said. "I hit the jumps that I wanted to go for. Changed up the Lutz to a flip. The Lutz was a little bit shakier than the flip, so I thought that was a good move. And overall, I thought the performance has been developing comparatively to the past couple of competitions. I'm overall pretty satisfied."
Skating halfway through the second-to-last group to take the ice, Chen received an ovation befitting a World champion before the strains of "Caravan" by Boston Brass had even begun. By the time the final notes sounded, the crowd was on its feet.
Chen is in the midst of his second season in which he went undefeated prior to the U.S. Championships. He won Skate America, Internationaux de France and the Grand Prix Final. Heading into last year's Championships, he had won Skate America, Rostelecom Cup and the Grand Prix Final.
Between those two stretches were perhaps his two most famous – or infamous – accomplishments: his World title at the 2018 ISU Figure Skating World Championships, and his disappointing fifth-place performance at the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018.
"Everything that I've done good and bad in the past, stays in the past," Chen said. "I learned quite a lot from the Olympics, and actually think I learn more from my mistakes than when I skate really well, so those are the things I try and carry with me - as in the good things that I've learned from those. But everything else, I definitely don't want to get to my head. I want to be able to stay in the moment with what I'm doing."
Since becoming an Olympic Team Event bronze medalist and World champion, Chen has upended his life, attending Yale University on the opposite coast from his training base and coach, Rafael Arutunian, in California. His tele-coaching situation might not be the most conventional, but given the results, Chen has hardly skipped a beat.
"I'm really loving being in the college atmosphere, being able to have something to do outside of the rink, being able to focus on things that are, in my opinion, equally as important as the time that I spend on the ice," Chen said. "And I feel like I'm learning quite a lot, obviously outside of skating, and within skating, in terms of how to train by myself, how to deal with unknown circumstances that I'm definitely not used to. Overall, I think everything's playing out exactly as I hoped it would."
Similarly, Brown also upended his life following the 2018 season. After missing the 2018 Olympic Team after an uncharacteristic sixth-place finish at the 2018 U.S. Championships, the 2015 national champion parted ways with the only coach he'd ever known, Kori Ade, and moved to Toronto to train with Brian Orser and Tracy Wilson.
After a rocky and inconsistent start to the season – he finished second at the Internationaux de France but sixth at Skate Canada earlier in the Grand Prix Series – he appears to be reaping the fruits of his move quicker than even he expected.
"What's cool is that Tracy and Brian are definitely like, 'You're picking things up a lot quicker than someone who's done something one way for so long,'" Brown said. "But I think it also comes from, I'm so willing to change and so open for that. So I'm kind of allowing for me to be malleable and allowing them to completely mold me."
Always a fan favorite at the U.S. Championships, Brown earned his customary raucous ovation for his program to "Love is a B****" by Two Feet. Inconsistent all season, it came together for him at the perfect time.
"I was really proud of pulling it together, staying calm and getting the job done," Brown said. "That's what I've really been training for. But with this program, I just love this style, I love the feeling. It lights this fire in me every time the music starts, and I love it. I really, really love it. And I love performing it."
Likewise, Zhou managed to get his affairs in order to put out a strong skate to "Exogenesis Symphony Part III" by Muse at the U.S. Championships.
"I don't think I've done better than that in competition," Zhou said. "That's about as good as I've trained in practice and I'm really happy I accomplished what I know I'm capable of."
Zhou finished second at the U.S. Championships in 2017 and third in 2018 to make the 2018 U.S. Olympic Team. After a sixth-place showing in PyeongChang, he stumbled to 14th at the World Championships. Afterwards, he revealed he'd hurt his back the day before leaving for Worlds.
The story of the last year of Zhou's life has been trying to come back from that injury. This season, he placed fifth at Skate America and fourth at NHK Trophy, and struggled with thoughts of walking away from skating.
"This is more than I could've asked for," Zhou said. "Each season, it seems like it just gets harder and harder. When it feels like it can't possibly get any harder, the next season is always there waiting. This season, I can't count the number of times I've gone through a feeling that I don't know if I can continue. So, to push through and to overcome my biggest obstacle, which is myself, and be able to perform like that today, I'm really grateful for the opportunity to have been able to do that."
Rounding out the top four is Tomoki Hiwatashi, who scored 84.05 points for his short program to "Cry Me a River" by Arthur Hamilton. The 2016 U.S. junior champion, Hiwatashi placed 15th at his senior national debut in 2017 and 12th in 2018.
"The past two years, I haven't been doing very well at nationals, so this year, at least for the short program, I was able to get fourth place," Hiwatashi said. "My next goal would be to do the same or better in the long program and be able to say, hey, that was a good year, I was able to finish off the season really good."
Hiwatashi won silver at his two Junior Grand Prix assignments this season, in Canada and Slovenia and qualified for the Junior Grand Prix Final for the first time, where he finished sixth.
The men's free skate concludes the U.S. Championships on Sunday, Jan. 27.
