KANSAS CITY — Nathan Chen became the first skater to land five quadruple jumps in one program in history en route to his first U.S. title Sunday, signaling that he might not just be an Olympic medal favorite, but a gold-medal contender.
Chen, 17, totaled seven quads between two programs — also a record — and scored 318.47 points. A U.S. Championships record. He won by the largest margin in U.S. Championships history (under a 12-year-old scoring system) — 55.44 points.
He is the youngest U.S. men’s champion since 1966. Vincent Zhou, 16, was a distant second.