2022 Olympics figure skating: Nathan Chen gives US an early lead in team competition

BEIJING — So far, so good for Nathan Chen and the U.S. Olympic figure skating team.

The reigning three-time world champion skated a calm, clean short program Friday to give the Americans an early lead after the first event of the team competition at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

Chen, 22, donned a simple black sport coat while skating to a rendition of "La Boheme" by Charles Aznavour. He landed both of his quads and a triple axel en route to a season-best score of 111.71, drawing loud cheers from the rest of Team USA's skaters, perched at the end of the rink. Pairs skater Kaitlin Hawayek, one of his closest friends, held up a handmade sign that read "10 for Chen."

"It feels great to be able to have a short program that I actually skated well, at an Olympic experience," Chen said with a laugh, alluding to his disastrous short program at the 2018 Games. "So (I will) take as much as I can from this experience and then take it day by day from here."

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Shoma Uno, the 2018 individual silver medalist from Japan, finished second with an overall score of 105.46, followed by the Russian Olympic Committee's Mark Kondratiuk (95.81).

The men's short program is the first of eight events in the team figure skating competition, which features teams from 10 countries. Competition continued later Friday with the rhythm dance and pairs short programs.

The U.S. took bronze in the team event at the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang.

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Chen, who has won each of the past three world championships and six consecutive national titles, will now likely shift his focus to the individual competition, where he is favored to win gold. 

He also said he was not planning to walk in the opening ceremony later Friday.

"I already did it once," he said. "And (it'll be) close proximity with a lot of people. I'm sure it will be safe, but I compete in a couple more days, so at this point, (I'll just) focus on that."

Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on Twitter @Tom_Schad.