![]() I didn’t know if I could make that happen. “I’d always dreamed about making the Olympics, but, you know, that’s hard. “I never really thought that I would be able to actually make it this far in my career,” Chen later said. And by Thursday afternoon in Beijing, the rest of the world knew it, too.īy the time he was popping and locking to a remix of Elton John’s “Benny and the Jets” - wherein the rapper Logic appropriately proclaims “I’ve been runnin’ and gunnin’ for something in due time” - Chen’s dream had, for all intents and purposes, come true. He knew how much Chen wanted Olympic gold. It means something, right? So I knew it.” “When they were sleeping in a car and came to practice,” Arutyunyan added, “ mom is giving me money in this hand, and I would take this hand and give it back to him. So I knew there was a chance.”Ĭhen and his mother, Hetty, came to him with nothing except the boy’s dream, the coach said. “And then one day, he said, ‘Mom, if we do not move, I will not make it.’ He’s an 11-year-old boy. ![]() And he did this three times a year, every year,” the California-based Arutyunyan said in the thick Armenian accent he has not shed in the 20 years he has lived in the United States. ![]() “He started to drive to me from Salt Lake City. So, how did Arutyunyan know? What, 11 years ago, did he see in the fresh-faced kid from Utah, of all places, that made him believe Chen could one day pocket every accolade skating had to offer? ![]() Then he painted a picture of just how hefty a tithe Chen paid to the figure skating gods to have the gold hang around his neck Thursday. Chen had just delivered a dominant performance and story of redemption, and the air was thick with emotion. How did Rafael Arutyunyan know Chen could become the greatest figure skater in the world? The coach fielded the question less than an hour after Chen, his star pupil, had won the gold medal at the Beijing 2022 Olympics, etching his name with his toe pick in bold letters into the sport’s history. Chen finished the men’s singles competition in a disappointing fifth place after a mistake riddled routine.(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Nathan Chen performs his routine in the figure skating men's free skate program at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics in Beijing, Thursday, Feb. However, his failure to win gold at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang despite major hype, had hung over him for four years. Chen has also won gold at the three most recent Grand Prix of Figure Skating finals along with six national titles. Nowhere has this been more apparent than the World Figure Skating Championship where the American has won singles gold in each of the past three editions. The 22-year-old Chen has been one of the most dominant figure skaters in the world for the past several years. He’s so unbelievably talented,” said Jason Brown, Chen’s U.S teammate, who finished in sixth place. I’ve gotten to compete with him over the last four years - at all the world championships, every national championship, the Grand Prix. Chen’s biggest rival, the two-time defending Olympic gold medalist Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan, placed fourth after failed quadruple axel-a move that has never been pulled off before.
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