In 1985, Elton John released a best-selling album titled "Ice on Fire." 34 years later, Nathan Chen, skating to the British icon's biopic
Rocketman, was all the reverse - fire on ice.
Superlatives have kept flowing over Chen's historic performance during the free program at the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final 2019 in Torino Italy. Never had any skater realized perfectly such an extremely demanding program – even Chen himself. Never had any champion scored as high as he did, 224.92 points for his free program and 335.30 points overall. "Rocketman" truly reached the stars.
Chen beat records in every compartment of his game in Torino. Double-digit scores for a particular technical element used to be quite exceptional in any program. The best skaters would receive one or two for a well landed quadruple junp or a triple-triple combination. Chen received an unprecedented number of seven double-digit technical scores for his program, that is, one for each one of his jumping elements.
His opening quad flip-triple toe combination was rewarded with a 5.03 point GOE and added 20.23 points to his tally in a matter of two seconds. One judge even awarded him the maximum score of 10 point for his Performance Component Score.
Chen also became an icon of the new generation. Reigning U.S. ladies champion, Alysa Liu, as well as the three new Russian queens, Alena Kostornaia, Anna Shcherbakova and Alexandra Trusova, all emphasized how much they look up to the three-time Grand Prix Final champion. Their junior counterparts, who were done with their own competition, rushed to watch him skate and land five quads in his free skate.
Particularly striking in Torino was the ease with which Chen landed every jump during each practice and again in the actual competition. Chen was completely focused throughout the whole competition, and delivered exactly what he wanted to at any given moment.
One man particularly praised Chen's feat and acknowledged his own admiration: Yuzuru Hanyu himself, whom Chen defeated for the gold, just like he had a few months before at Worlds in the close-by city of Milan.
"I'm tired, because Nathan has been pushing harder and harder," the two-time Olympic gold medalist admitted after the free program. "Why does he make it so much harder, I'm really older now!" he added laughing, as the men skated their free program precisely on his 25th birthday.
"Nathan has everything: jumps, spins, musical sense, as he can feel the tempo. He has so much experience from gym and ballet – something I don't have. He is an icon for my practice," Hanyu added. "I always like to compete with very good skaters. If I'm alone to skate above 300 points, I feel really lonely and I can't find motivation for skating. So here is my motivation for skating! At the Final I could feel competing in a sport on the ice. I can say that I'm happy to skate!"
Hanyu recognized that his will to advance in the sport was driven by Chen's efforts. "I want to continue growing with Nathan. There were two things I wanted to accomplish here: land a quad loop and a quad Lutz, and try my quad Axel, and I accomplished both," he said. "I had not landed a quad Lutz for two years. I accomplished it here and finally I can practice it again. Thanks, Nathan, for making the competition higher!"
There must be a natural fraternity among the greatest of a given sport. At any occasion he had, Chen acknowledged how much he respects Hanyu and also feeds from him.
"It's an awesome opportunity to compete with Yuzu, each time he pushes me and that makes things a lot more exciting," Chen offered after the short program. "Yuzu is the G.O.A.T., the Greatest of All Time really. It's really cool to have the opportunity to share the ice with a guy like that, someone I've looked up to for a long time. He definitely pushes me to be a better skater. I mean, I've watched him so many times, since the time he was a junior and I, just a baby. He started the quad frenzy at a time I couldn't land any. I watched the Sochi Games and I thought 'wow, this guy is crazy, this is what I want to be.' He is completely capable of doing what I do, and even better than I can do it. Also it's also really cool to see him as a person. To have someone in the distance whom I am constantly trying to catch is really cool. I can't tell you everything I admire in Yuzu: we'd need to stay for 45 minutes!" He concluded laughing.
The Japanese star admitted that he would love to skate a program including all six different quads, including the Axel. "It's my dream! If I can…" he suggested. "I'll try to learn the quad Axel, and I train for the quad flip," he said. Yet, the three-time Grand-Prix Final gold medalist is not ready to land the same quads as Hanyu's. "I'm waiting for (Yuzu) to land a quad Axel, and we'll see then," Chen said laughing. "I did quad loop some years ago," he added, "but so off-axis starting the jump is really scary. So if you want to see a quad loop, just watch Yuzu!"
Chen will have other priorities as he prepares for U.S. Championships next month, after he is done with his final exams at Yale in a week.
"Every time I compete there are always things I can improve on. I like to improve every time I can. I haven't yet felt after a program that it was as great as it could possibly be. There are always little bits I can tune," Chen explained. "Technically I did everything here, but I can always improve on PCS (Program Component Scores) and the overall program. Yuzuru is much better at them than I am. If he had skated perfectly, he would have won. Look at the way the whole crowd is welcoming him. He has that energy you can feel on the ice. These are things I'd like to emulate as much as I can." Â
Chen rotated no less than 35 times in the air during his 4-min. free program. After all, the earth needs 35 days to do the same! Not bad, for a Rocketman.
The next stop for the Grand Prix Final champion is the 2020 TOYOTA U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Greensboro, North Carolina. Tickets are available at
ncskate2020.com.
