BEIJING —Nathan Chen has been tugging on figure skates nearly every day of his life since he was 3, and often dreaming about moments like this one, on a sheet of Olympic ice, with the world at his fingertips.
He has been training for them, ritualizing the quad jumps and toeloops that have made him the best figure skater in the world, dedicating 19 years to the few minutes that could crown him or devastate him.
On Thursday, those minutes arrived, and Chen delivered.
Two days after a redemptive, record-setting short program here at the Capital Indoor Stadium, Chen leapt and spun to Olympic gold with a brilliant long program.