Winning the gold in Beijing 2022 Olympics, Nathan Chen has put US men’s figure skating back at the top. The US had placed out of the top three for the last two Olympic Games, Chen taking fourth in the Pyeongchang Olympics. The last time an American stood atop that podium was Evan Lysacek in Vancouver in 2010.

But America has an excellent track record of Olympic champions in the past. And it all started with one man, Dick Button, back in 1948.

Nathan Chen meets Dick Button

Dick Button is a legend in the world of figure skating. He won two consecutive Olympic titles in 1948 and 1952, a record for 66 years until Yuzuru Hanyu defended his title in 2018. In a recent tweet by US Figure Skating, we see Nathan Chen shake hands with the legend himself. Both the skaters have pushed the boundaries of the sport in their time.

Button absolutely dominated the sport right from the get-go. Though he placed second in the 1947 World Championships, he never lost another competition again. He collected the World title for five consecutive years (from 1948 to 1952) and changed the landscape for jumps.

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He was the first skater to land a triple jump, the first to ratify a double Axel, and the youngest male skater to win the Olympic title (he was 18!). Of course, in jumps, Nathan Chen is a pioneer in his own regard. Nathan Chen was the first skater to collect five types of quadruple jumps (all but the Axel) in his arsenal.

Chen made figure skating history when he landed six quadruple jumps in his free program in Pyeongchang. Chen also has three World titles under his belt and has broken countless records in the short, free, and combined scores.

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Dick Button’s take on the quad revolution

While Button himself pushed the technical envelope during his time, he is not quite fond of the rising importance and score advantage given to quadruple jumps. He commented on the quad revolution in a conference with Olympic reporters back in 2018.

“I don’t even enjoy watching skating today because it’s all about quadruple jumps,” Button said. “The winner of the Olympic Games in the men’s will be the skater that performs the best and most quadruple jumps. Period, end of subject.”

The two-time Olympic champion isn’t quite fond of the shift we are seeing from the focus on artistry to what is essentially becoming a jumping competition. But the most recent US Olympic champion has a different perspective. Chen claimed, “It’s definitely pushing the sport, pushing all of us to try inhuman things. I think it’s awesome.”

It is exciting to see where the sport will go from here. There have been some proposed changes in the scoring system on ISU’s latest agenda. Will we see figure skating focus more and more on jumps? Or will artistry prevail as an important aspect?

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