Beijing, Feb 4 (AFP/APP): Strongly fancied Nathan Chen laid old demons to rest with a blistering start to his Olympics campaign in Beijing on Friday, as the figure skating competition kicked off.
The American scored a personal best to beat Japan’s Shoma Uno into second place in the men’s single short programme of the te
ams event.
The score of 111.71 was just 0.11 points off the highest score ever for a short programme — which is held by Uno’s compatriot Yuzuru Hanyu, Chen’s main rival in the individual event.
Chen, who had a disastrous short programme at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics that dashed his hopes of gold, was asked Friday if he had now banished those bitter memories.
“You learn the most from your mistakes,” the 22-year-old said.
“I don’t think I’d be able to be here where I am now without having had that experience… rather than that being a demon I think that was a very helpful learning experience.”
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