Nathan Chen ‘in control of everything’ going for fourth straight national title

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Nathan Chen came to last year’s U.S. Championships in Detroit with a lot of uncertainty left about what would happen to his skating now that his time and energy were split between being an elite figure skater and being a freshman at Yale, 3,000 miles from his coach, trying to get training help via video chat.

Sure, he was still winning, both his 2018 Grand Prix events and the Grand Prix Final, but there were a lot of mistakes, a lot of inconsistency, a lot of questions about whether he could make his new normal work.

And then he blew the doors off the Little Caesars Arena twice, skating marvelously in both the short and long programs to win his third national title in a…