Americans qualify for men’s free skate

Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu became the first man to repeat since American Dick Button in 1952, scoring a two-programme total of 317.85 points.

The Japanese figure skater built on his stellar performance in the short program on Friday and got the second-highest score in the free skating event Saturday, despite missing two jumps. Showing a similar grit and determination to Hanyu, Uno turned the program around and delivered an emotional, committed performance to Puccini’s “Turandot”.

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea After his error-filled Olympic debut in the men’s team event short program, two-time USA champion Nathan Chen went immediately to the practice rink in the basement of the Gangneung Ice Arena and, over a 20-minute span, performed the way he had hoped to when it counted. Hanyu considers Pooh a lucky charm, and regularly carries the bear with him as a mascot.

In a news conference Thursday, Chen said he had corrected the problems in practice over the past week, but that clearly was not the case.

Mirai Nagasu became the first American woman to land a triple axel at the Olympics on Monday, while Vincent Zhou landed the very first quad lutz in Winter Games history on Friday.

On Twitter, former US Olympic figure skaters like Michelle Kwan and Scott Hamilton gushed over Chen’s jumps and historic performance. My tears were from my heart. “I can find one word and that is happy”. “I am really happy because I was really feeling the music too, and the ice”, Hanyu said after his skate. “I was not prepared that I would be at this ceremony”, Ledecka said of her surprise victory. I’m going to try it.

Fernandez, skating to “Man of La Mancha”, was a worthy medalist, finishing just 1.66 points behind Uno. Japan’s Shoma Uno won the silver, and Spain’s Javier Fernandez won the bronze. His free-skate score of 215.08 was a personal best by more than 11 points and almost eight points better than Hanyu’s.

GANGNEUNG, South Korea – Nathan Chen finally admitted the pressure of being the face of American figure skating got to him, winding him up so tight for his short program that it ended in what he described as a “disaster”.

“Honestly, I didn’t care any more”, Chen said.

NATHAN CHEN: It was sort of an anger thing. “If I start dwelling on what they are going to do, or what I think they will do, it’s just going to negatively impact myself”.

Chen told reporters afterward, “I literally had nothing to lose”. It’s something I’ve looked forward to my whole entire life, just to be at the Olympic games, be at the Olympic venue, be at all the Olympic Village and all that.

Hanyu came into these Games as figure skating’s biggest global star. “I’m human, I make mistakes, and unfortunately I had a really bad time”, he said. I really had a good time on the ice. I even thought it wasn’t a ideal performance today it was a good one.