Skating rings around his rivals, Nathan Chen's rise to the sport's elite has been meteoric

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Skating rings around his rivals, Nathan Chen's rise to the sport's elite has been meteoric

Perfect symbolic fit:  Five Olympic rings.  Five Nathan Chen free skate quads.  And Chen doing them on the rink where a year from now he will be a strong contender for an Olympic gold medal.

The improbability that I could now confidently make such a bold statement about Chen is, in keeping with the numerical theme, the first of five takeaways from what he did Friday and Sunday in winning the Four Continents Championships in Gangneung, South Korea.

1.  Few U.S. singles skaters have had as meteoric a rise as Nathan Chen.

Last December 8, a day before the free skate at the Grand Prix Final, the 17-year-old from Salt Lake City was a prodigiously talented young skater with no striking international success at the senior level.

Barely three months later, he has become the most striking figure skater in the world, with a real chance to win the title in his debut at the senior World Championships beginning March 28 in Helsinki, Finland.

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Holding your breath as Vonn chases history by skiing right on the edge of crazy (and thoughts on other things Olympic, including 2024, Nathan Chen & Evgenia Medvedeva)

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Holding your breath as Vonn chases history by skiing right on the edge of crazy (and thoughts on other things Olympic, including 2024, Nathan Chen & Evgenia Medvedeva)

1.  Los Angeles has an excellent 2024 Olympic bid.  So does Paris.  So the idea of having the International Olympic Committee vote in September for both 2024 and 2028 rather than just 2024 makes absolute sense.  If both bids get to the day of reckoning in Peru, neither deserves to lose.

No one knows how the mechanics of an unprecedented IOC two-for-one deal might go.  It carries the slight risk of a huge upset if, as expected, the vote for 2028 would occur after that for 2024, because there is a third 2024 finalist, Budapest.

Sure, it is a) highly unlikely that Budapest could beat either Paris or L.A. head-to-head; and b) if Paris gets 2024, marking the centennial of its last Olympics, it is also unlikely that the IOC would choose to put two straight Summer Games in Europe (that hasn’t happened since 1948-52.)

Paris 2024 – LA 2028 is the best scenario, since it assures the Xenophobe-in-Chief will be out of office when Los Angeles is host – even if there is a chance the U.S. president who follows Trump will be equally deplorable.  (Or more deplorable, if that is possible.)

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Chen's jumping display has skating world buzzing

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Chen's jumping display has skating world buzzing

"Remarkable," said Tim Goebel, the first skater to land three quadruple jumps in a program.

"To master so many different takeoffs, that's where the hat comes off," said four-time world champion Kurt Browning, the first to land a quadruple jump in competition.

"Amazing. Amazing," said 1988 Olympic champion Brian Boitano, the first to land all six types of triple jumps in a competition.

"Welcome to the future," said 1984 Olympic champion Scott Hamilton.

"This is crazy...quite extroaordinary...staggering," British Eurosport's Simon Reed told his TV audience.

Such was the reaction from some of figure skating's most accomplished champions and a veteran commentator to what they had seen Nathan Chen do in the free skate at last week's Grand Prix Final in Marseille, France.

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Older, wiser Lindsey Vonn finding less risk can bring more reward

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Older, wiser Lindsey Vonn finding less risk can bring more reward

Three weeks ago, when Lindsey Vonn was tearing up the Alpine ski circuit and still keeping her oft-battered body intact, I spoke with her on the phone to gather information for a story to appear before the World Cup finals in mid-March.

We talked about several things.

*The loneliness of months on the road that led her to get a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppy, Lucy, now five months old, as a travel companion.

*The slow rebuilding of confidence after her two extensive knee surgeries in 2013.

*The pride she is taking in consistently winning and breaking records.

*Risk management.

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Worlds three-peat for U.S. men skaters? It doesn't figure

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Worlds three-peat for U.S. men skaters? It doesn't figure

After two busy weeks on the figure skating scene, including the U.S., Canadian and European Championships and the news of a season-ending injury for U.S. phenom Nathan Chen, let’s catch our breath for a look of what it all means to U.S. singles skaters as they look toward the 2016 World Championships.

Today, a look at the men’s situation.  Tomorrow, the women.

*The loss of Chen to a hip avulsion fracture that required surgery will have minimal impact on the United States’ slim-to-no chance of keeping its three men’s spots for the 2017 World Figure Skating Championships.

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