Nathan Chen Skated So Well His Name Is Now a Verb

From ELLE

Have you ever practiced something for years, performed it on a global stage - and totally screwed it up? Probably not. That's an unhappy experience 18-year-old U.S. figure skater Nathan Chen had just a day ago at PyeongChang's Gangneung Ice Arena. Chen's short program was riddled with missteps, and the teenager - whom many thought a medal contender - took a short time out before returning to the ice.

But instead of allowing his mistakes to drag him down, on Saturday morning (local time) Chen smashed an Olympic record, landing five quad jumps in the men's free skate. His score of 215.08 put him at the top of the leaderboard for at least a little while, and it came thanks to a last-minute decision to attempt six quads - something even his coach didn't know he was going to attempt.

It wasn't enough to put him on the podium, but it was certainly a redeeming moment. “Having such a rough short program allowed me to just forget about expectations and just allow myself to really enjoy myself,” Chen told the New York Times. “I think six quads was almost a game-time decision, I knew at that point that I had literally nothing to lose.

Even fellow Olympian Kristi Namaguchi was agog: