He became the first American figure skating champion since Evan Lysacek in 2010 and capped one of the most dominant four-year runs in the history of the sport.
Beijing — Nathan Chen remembers making the long drive with his mother from his home in Salt Lake City to Rafael Artyunyun’s training base in Southern California. He had started just a few years earlier, using his sister’s skates and sleeping in the car to follow his Olympic dreams. Ten years later, Chen sat alongside Artyunyun on Thursday morning as his scores were read and that dream was finally realized. With a nearly perfect free skate on the heels of a, the 22-year-old Yale student walked away with the gold medal at Thursday. He became the first American figure skating champion since Evan Lysacek in 2010 and capped one of the most dominant four-year runs in the history of the sport. “My mom and I grew up quite poor. We really didn’t have much money,” Chen said after the emotions of his stirring triumph had slowly settled down. “She would just scrap together some dollars to try to pay Raf, and Raf obviously knew about the situation and thanks to the kindness of his heart, was able to just continue taking me in, and taking as much money as we could provide him.” Artyunyun would try to give the money back sometimes, Chen said, “but I would always try to stick it in his pocket.” Chen was able to give his old coach something priceless. “I’m happy. Just emotional,” Arutyunyan said. “He made it.” Inside historic Capital Indoor Stadium in China, the nation both his parents immigrated from, Chen landed all five of his quads during his “Rocketman” program set to the soaring film score by Elton John.
