Nathan Chen didn’t have the best results at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics this month.
Although, we think he did phenomenal in coming back so strong in his free program that no one was able to actually catch him until gold medalist Yuzuru Hanyu took the ice, Nathan admits that he didn’t have the best programs.
“These past two weeks have been the biggest emotional rollercoaster of my life,” Nathan broke his silence on Instagram this weekend. “I began this competition with the two worst short programs of my competitive career. I couldn’t believe what happened, and my confidence completely dissipated.”
But thanks to the fans and the love of his teammates, he got up.
“If not for the hundreds of messages of support from all of you I never would’ve been able to bounce back and lay down the long I did here,” he adds. “Truly thank you all so much for the support and love. #WeGetUp.”
Nathan also gave another shout out to his teammates, as he did leave with a bronze medal with the team event.
Congrats to sibling ice dancers Alex and Maia Shibutani!
They just won the bronze medal at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in their individual event for ice dance!
The free skate ended with Canada’s Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir on top with the gold medal and France’s Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron with silver.
Team USA’s Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue slipped to 5th place.
During the free skate, the third USA team — Madison Chock and Evan Bates, who performed a stunning routine to John Lennon‘s “Imagine” — fell during their program. They finished in 12th place.
Congrats to all the medalists!
Team USA has three ice dance teams at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics — Maia and Alex Shibutani, Madison Chock and Evan Bates, and national champs Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue.
The two started skating together fairly recently, in 2011, and date a pair of other ice dancers, who just happen to skate together too.
But before they dated and skated, and broke up, they actually didn’t like each other at all.
“We were both competitors against each other and we hated each other,” Madison shared with People. “Our mutual coach at the time kind of forced us to start skating together just to kill time.
She adds, “We didn’t really want to skate together. It was fate.”
Madison and Zachary will make their Olympic debut TONIGHT @ 8PM ET/PT on NBC.
Maia Shibutani has had quite a bit to celebrate this week already, after Team USA figure skating won the bronze medal at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics.
After the medal ceremony, the 23-year-old skater shared quite the throwback photo with teammate Adam Rippon.
“GLOW UP! Amazing to watch your friends make their dreams come true at the Olympics!” she captioned two pics, one new, and one old. Check them out below!
Maia is gearing up to head to the Short Dance program portion of the games, where her and brother Alex will perform in the 18th position on Monday (February 19).
Vincent Zhou got really emotional after his free skate program on Sunday (February 17) at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics.
The 17-year-old figure skater, who is the youngest member of Team USA, slipped on one jump, but landed five quads and scored his personal best with 192.16.
Vincent placed 6th after his free skate, while teammates Nathan Chen and Adam Rippon placed 5th and 10th, respectively.
“These are memories that I will think back on many decades later and smile an old, withered smile complete with knowledge that I made the most of my life, especially as a 17 year old Olympian,” Vincent wrote on Instagram. “I placed 6th among the best skaters in the history of this sport and I am so very proud to do so representing the USA. My place is here and my time is now.”
Nathan Chen got off to a rocky start at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in the men’s short program last night — but we know that anything can happen with the free skate tonight.
The 18-year-old figure skater recently spoke with Chicago Tribune and revealed that he actually still plans to do four to five quad jumps in his program.
“I think I will include the Lutz; however; the number will be between four and five,” he says. “I am capable of doing all of them, but I know Salchow, toe, flip and Lutz are the most comfortable at the moment, so I think that is where my mind is set.”
That’s his plan, anyways.
Nathan adds that, “come the day of competition, I will decide what specifically I want to do…I think [six quads] is a little too risky of a program now, so I don’t really feel as though that’s something I’m going try to set my mind to right now.”
We’ll be rooting on Nathan at JJJ!
Nathan Chen found himself in 16th place after the men’s short program at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics yesterday, following a shocking performance.
Skating after Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu, the reigning Olympic champion, Nathan struggled and fell on his opening quad lutz triple toe combo, before stumbling on his next quad-triple combination too.
“I honestly have never been in this position before, so I don’t really know exactly what to do,” the 18-year-old skater said after the event. “We’ll talk to the rest of my team and figure out what to do.”
He adds, “It just was rough. Nothing really clicked together. I did all the right stuff going into it. It should have been different.”
While he doesn’t have many answers right now, Nathan does have major support coming in all directions from fans, teammates and skating greats.
The Men’s Free Skate airs TONIGHT @ 8PM ET/PT on NBC.
Read some of the supportive messages below:
