How Nathan Chen Won Gold in Men’s Figure Skating

After a seemingly nervous warmup on Thursday at the Beijing Olympics, Nathan Chen opened his long program with a soaring quadruple flip-triple toe combination jump that settled him into a dominant performance that delivered a gold medal.

There was a sense of departure, of escape, in the Elton John songs that Chen chose for his free skate: “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” and “Rocket Man.” On Thursday, it was his former skating self that Chen left behind. As it turns out, he was his only real opponent.

Since his disastrous short program at the 2018 Olympics, which ended his medal ambitions, he has won 16 of his 17 competitions. Now, that haunted performance from four years ago has been exorcised on…