BEIJING — Two minutes from gold, Nathan Chen remembered to have fun. A lifetime of sacrifices by him and people who love him, four years of replaying a pair of disastrous short programs in PyeongChang, two days of trying to ignore mounting expectations—all that weight fell away on Thursday at Capital Indoor Stadium as the chords swelled.
Halfway through a stunning, electrifying free skate, Chen reminded himself to smile. And as he mimicked joy, he began to feel it too.
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“I was kind of grooving a little more and enjoying the program,” he said after he finished with an overall score of 332.