Tuesday's historic performance comes after Chen fell twice during the PyeongChang Games.
If it wasn't already clear that Nathan Chen had put his “disastrous” PyeongChang Games behind him, his performance in Beijing left no doubt.
With a score of 113.97, Chen set the highest short program score in figure skating history. The historic performance puts Chen nearly six points ahead of second place going into Thursday's free skate as Chen seeks his first individual Olympic medal.
Four years ago in PyeongChang, Chen entered as one of the heavy favorites but fell during the short program in both the individual and team event. On Tuesday in Beijing, the 22-year-old was undeterred.
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“I was elated,” Chen said during the NBC broadcast. “Last Olympics, both short programs didn't go the way that I wanted and finally getting the opportunity to skate the programs the way that I wanted—it feels really good. It means a lot.”
Chen helped Team USA to silver in the team event on Monday by finishing first in the short program, but saved his best for Tuesday. Chen's score broke the record of back-to-back Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu, who sits in eighth after failing to complete an early jump.
With U.S. teammate Vincent Zhou out after testing positive for COVID-19, Jason Brown finished sixth as an alternate.
All that stands in the way of gold for Chen is Thursday's free skate, a portion of the event in which he posted the highest score at the 2018 Games.
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