American figure skater Nathan Chen gave Team USA a rough start at the 2018 Winter Olympics when he suffered several falls during his first skate.
During his first two minutes and 40 seconds on ice, the 18-year-old famed figure skater, who has come into the Olympics as one of the most heavily promoted athletes in memory and is the sole undefeated male skater around the world for the 2018 Winter Olympics, toppled on the ice during the daunting triple axel.
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“I just wasn’t thinking of the right technical things before the jumps,” Chen told USA Today. “I was a little bit ahead of myself. Obviously, that’s not what I wanted to do on my first Olympic run but I’m also upset that I sort of let the rest of the team down.”
While Chen’s performance was a disappointment, he still managed to slip into a fourth place standing, which is good for seven points in the competition that will take place over four days. He is slated to skate again in the men’s individual event next Friday.
“I’m glad I got the opportunity to at least put my program down and learn from it, now all I can do is try to analyze what I did wrong and move on,” he added.
Team USA has already had a rough time at the Olympics, which are taking place in Pyeongchang, South Korea. American speed skater Shani Davis boycotted the Opening Ceremony Friday morning after losing a coin toss to decide who would be the flag bearer for Team USA.
Davis, 31, lost the toss to Erin Hamlin, a four-time Olympian and winner of the bronze medal for luge in the 2014 Sochi Games. The toss was issued to be the deciding factor after a committee tied on its nominations for the flag bearer, 4-4 between Davis and Hamlin.
