BEIJING (Reuters) -Nathan Chen of the United States claimed his maiden Olympic title when he won the gold medal in the men’s singles with a dazzling free skating at the Beijing Games on Thursday.
The 22-year-old, who went home empty-handed after a meltdown in Pyeongchang four years ago, scored 218.63 in the free skating performing to ‘Rocket Man’ by Elton John. That added to his world-record in the short programme for a total of 332.60.
Yuma Kagiyama (310.05) was second and fellow Japanese Shoma Uno (293.00) ended up third.
Yuzuru Hanyu, who was hoping to win the event for the third time in a row, finished fourth on 283.21 after the Japanese skater dropped out of title contention in the short programme.
(Reporting by Julien Pretot, Chang-Ran Kim and Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; Editing by XXXX;)
