Nathan Chen delivered a spectacular comeback performance in the men's free skate at the Winter Olympics on Saturday morning, just 24 hours after his gold medal hopes were crushed.
The 18-year-old American became the first person to land five clean quads in an Olympic program and rack up a remarkable score of 215.08, nearly 11 points higher than his previous best ever. Unfortunately, Chen's redemption skate was not enough to overcome his low-scoring short program and he finished fifth.
Fellow Americans Vincent Zhou and Adam Rippon finished sixth and 10th, respectively.
Japan's Yuzuru Hanyu and Shoma Uno took gold and silver, respectively. Spain's Javier Fernandez took bronze -- the first-ever figure skating medal for Spain.
Chen attempted six quad jumps but touched the ice with his hands after one of them, yet it could not detract from an incredible show of resiliency, having floundered so badly the previous day.
"Nathan Chen is still the quad king!"
This is history. @nathanwchen with SIX quads in his men's free skate program. #WinterOlympics #BestOfUS https://t.co/Ldd0aubwzt pic.twitter.com/LrM7LDjArn
In the short program on Friday, Chen, one of the gold medal favorites going into the Games, placed a lowly 17th with an uncharacteristically timid and uneasy display and was devastated afterwards.
His bounce-back effort was enough to put him temporarily in first place and left to wait and see if the skaters to follow struggled enough to elevate him into the top five or even better.
"I did what I did and we will see what happens," Chen said.
