Nathan Chen Takes Gold in Men's Figure Skating, Praises Mom for Support: 'This Is A Result of Her'
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Nathan Chen's four-year wait for redemption is over: the U.S. figure skater is leaving the Beijing Winter Olympics with a gold medal.
During Thursday morning's free skate program, the 22-year-old claimed his first men's singles Olympic gold medal with a world-record 218.63 points, becoming the first American to win the event since Evan Lysacek in 2010. Chen's total score was 332.60, coming ahead of silver medalist Yuma Kagiyama of Japan (310.05) and bronze medalist Shoma Uno, also of Japan (293.0).
Following the big win, Chen appeared on Today and reflected on the hard-earned victory, explaining that it lives up to everything he's ever dreamed of.
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"I truly never thought I'd actually make it this far in skating," he said on the show. "To have the opportunity to get to the Olympics and be able to do what I did, it's all thanks to the people that have supported me throughout my career."
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Often nicknamed the "Quad King" for his peerless, how-does-he-land-them jumps, Chen was looking for redemption in the 2022 Winter Olympics after multiple devastating falls at the 2018 Games in South Korea.
Chen said he focused on "enjoying every moment" for this year's Games compared to 2018 where his mind was set on the medal and podium.
"I certainly learned the most from my mistakes," Chen added. "The fact that I was able to get a second chance at the Olympics, I of course didn't want to lose out on this opportunity.
The figure skater also attributes his success to his mother, Hetty Wang, who he said "stood by his side" throughout the years in the sport and deserves the gold medal just as much as him.
"Absolutely none of this would be at all remotely possible without her support," he said. "Since day one, 3 years old, I stepped on the ice, and she's been by my side ever since."
"We didn't always have the funds to be able to support coaching," Chen continued during the interview. "So she was basically my coach throughout that whole period of time I was growing up, and along when I decided to move to California to work with my current coach, Rafael Arutunian. She drove me back and forth in our trusty little Prius, so a lot of miles put together and a lot of time put together, but this is a result of her."
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The win follows Chen's historic performance earlier this week, taking the lead in the men's competition on Monday with the highest short program score ever. Chen performed a program set to "La Bohème" by Charles Aznavour and executed a series of impressive jumps to move into first place with a score of 113.97.
Older and wiser, Chen had confidence heading into Beijing. He told PEOPLE in an interview, "I think that looking back in 2018, all I could think about was skating and not being able to, obviously, skate well. So I want to definitely be able to embrace the Games in a different way."
Now, he's learned to remind himself "like, yes, this is a pretty stressful time, but at the same time, there's a lot more to life. There's so much more than this individual competition than this one shot."
To learn more about Team USA, visit TeamUSA.org. Watch the Winter Olympics, now, and the Paralympics, beginning March 4, on NBC.
