In the final practice before Friday's men's short program at the Gangneung Ice Area, there were signs that all was not well with U.S. champion Nathan Chen. The country's best hope of an individual figure-skating medal at the Pyeongchang Olympics, Chen, 18, was twice forced to put a hand down to steady himself on landing two of the quadruple jumps he attempted.
In the highly ritualized ranks of elite figure skating, ending practice on a positive note is imperative for muscle memory, positive mental image and the confidence that's required to defy gravity and physics while projecting effortless grace. On this occasion, Chen's rough preliminary patch was doubly unsettling given his disastrous showing in his Olympic debut the previous week, proving an uncharacteristic bundle of nerves in the team event as he shortchanged one quad and fell on a triple Axel.
Chen's shot at redemption came Friday, and he imploded, delivering a more ragged version of his short program to finish hopelessly out of medal contention when the competition concludes with Saturday's longer free skate. Chen fell on his opening quad flip, earning an automatic one-point deduction, and his missteps piled up as he stepped out of two subsequent jumps and never settled into a performance that earned just 82.27 points — nearly 22 points shy of his season's best marks.
He finished last among the United States' three first-time Olympians. Adam Rippon placed seventh (87.95); Vincent Zhou 12th (84.53).
"I honestly have never been in this position before, so I don't really know exactly what to do," said Chen, who is nicknamed "The Quad King" for his proficiency with quadruple jumps. "I'm going to talk to my team, figure out what the best approach is and try to move on from it."
Defending Olympic and world champion Yuzuru Hanyu, 23, competing for the first time since badly injuring his right ankle last fall, delivered a performance that was flawless to all but the most discerning eye to earn the top score (111.68), just off his world record.
Spain's Javier Fernandez (107.58) stands second.
Friday's competition consisted of 30 skaters competing generally in inverse order of their world ranking, so it built to a crescendo of excellence. The top 24 advanced to Saturday's free skate (7 p.m. CT Friday).
After his wobbly performance in last week's team event, Chen, who started skating at age 3, retreated to a practice rink 40 miles from the Olympic compound to train in private with largely unfettered access to ice. "I put all the bad things out there (in the team competition)," he declared upon his return, "so now I can just go up from here."
Sadly, that wasn't the case.
Wearing a snug grey top with a swipe of white extending up his left side and down his left arm, Chen took the ice looking like a stylish international spy. But it went wrong from the start, and he proved a shadow of the competitor who beat Hanyu in Moscow last October.
The arena erupted in Japanese flags and the high-pitched squeals of his young fans when Hanyu took the ice. Skating to Chopin's Ballade No. 1, he reminded the figure-skating world that he has few, if any, peers. He was sheer fluidity on the ice, as if liquefied. One difficult element simply unspooled to the next, as if a dance.
Rippon has used his platform as an Olympian to speak frankly about being a proud gay man in the hope it helps young people facing fear, prejudice and marginalization because of their own sexual identity. By competing as his "authentic self," as Rippon has said, he has achieved a deeper joy and liberation as a person and artist. He also knows how to have fun, and that's what his short program, set to the electronic dance hit "Let Me Think About It," was about.
One of just nine competitors who didn't plan or attempt a quad, which lies at the outer reach of his proficiency, Rippon hoped instead to deliver a flawless performance of less technical rigor. He nearly did that. Despite struggling to hang onto his triple Axel, he staged a crowd-pleasing, sassy show that ended with a series of gorgeous spins. When finished, he pumped his fist and fell back on the ice as a large segment of the 12,000-seat arena stood and applauded. And he cupped his hands to one ear to hear more.
Competing third, Zhou had some hiccups in a technically difficult program but earned a spot in the sport's history as the first to land a clean quad Lutz at the Olympics. He followed with a quad flip, displaying maturity beyond his years.
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