Yuzuru Hanyu, Nathan Chen and the shadow that still shapes men’s skating in Milan
Nathan Chen arrived in Milan this week but won’t be on the ice. Instead he’ll watch the men’s Olympic event from the stands, a rare view for the two-time Olympic champion who helped reshape the sport’s technical ceiling. Friday’s free skate (Feb. 13, ET) could crown a new face of forward momentum or reinforce the imprint Chen left on men’s figure skating.
Chen in the stands: a different vantage
Chen has not formally retired, but he has not competed since his dominant showing in 2022. He told assembled crowds he now gets to see “what it looks like on the other side, ” trading preparation and pressure for analysis, sponsor duties and ambassador work linked to future winter bids. His presence in the arena is more than ceremonial: it’s a reminder that the current generation built its programs around the standard he helped establish.
The technical legacy: quads and the arms race
Chen’s willingness to load programs with multiple types of quadruple jumps reoriented men’s skating. Moves once treated as rare spectacles are now standard components of a gold-medal bid. That shift opened an arms race: athletes pack programs with quads, chase back-half bonuses and engineer transitions to preserve component scores against towering technical base values.
Yuzuru Hanyu’s continuing claim
Any conversation about the sport’s greats cannot be limited to jump counts. Yuzuru Hanyu remains an essential reference for artistry, longevity and a rare ability to move crowds. His two Olympic titles and the performance quality he routinely delivered keep him central to debates about how to weigh peak Olympic triumphs against sustained emotional impact and musical interpretation.
Malinin’s gold chase and what Friday means
Ilia Malinin arrives in Milan with the most aggressive jump content in the field and a reputation for normalizing previously unthinkable elements. If he nails his program Friday, the result could shift talk of hierarchy quickly. But Olympic ice demands more than technical fireworks; it rewards the skater who pairs risk with polish under pressure. The Olympic filter will judge who can combine the modern technical template with the composed execution that Chen displayed in 2022.
Where Chen’s 2022 peak still matters
Chen’s 2022 performance remains the benchmark for Olympic excellence in the current scoring era. His clean delivery across two programs showed how to balance maximal difficulty with consistency — proof that technical ambition must be matched by composure. Until another athlete produces that blend on the Olympic stage, Chen’s gold-standard output will be the measuring rod for what “peak” looks like.
A three-way debate over value
The evolving conversation about the greatest in men’s skating now centers on three threads: Chen’s peak Olympic supremacy and technical innovation, Malinin’s current technical ceiling and risk tolerance, and Hanyu’s artistry and sustained emotional pull. How judges and audiences value those elements will shape the sport’s immediate future — and determine whether Friday’s result feels like an arrival, a preservation of legacy, or a redefinition.
Whether Chen is on the ice or in the stands, the sport he helped remake will be judged by the standards he raised. Milan may deliver a new chapter — or it may underscore how foundational his contributions remain to men’s figure skating.
