While all of his top competitors fell, the 18-year-old Chen completed six quadruple jumps in the free program on Saturday to become the first U.S. winner of the men’s world figure skating title since 2009. That compared to his Olympic free program where he attempted six triples, completing five cleanly but putting his hands down on a quad-flip. Chen said the Olympic disappointment in the individual and team short programs helped pave the way to the world title, the first by a U.S. men’s skater since Evan Lysacek nine years ago. “I learned so much more from making those mistakes in both short programs, than if I would have skated better,” Chen said. Later Saturday is the ice dance, with Olympic silver medallists Gabrielle Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France looking to reclaim the world title.

Source: National Post March 24, 2018 14:24 UTC