Nathan Chen competes at the Internationaux de France on Nov. 2, 2019 in Grenoble, France.
Nathan Chen had to skip classes at Yale to compete in this weekend’s ISU Grand Prix stop in France, but he earned top marks there too.
The two-time world champion took the lead after the short program on Friday at the Internationaux de France in Grenoble, France, then polished off his eighth straight Grand Prix title with a score of 194.68 in the free skate on Saturday for a total score of 297.16. He’s the first skater since Evgeni Plushenko to win eight consecutive Grand Prix events.
Skating to music by Elton John from the movie “Rocketman,” Chen wasn’t quite as clean as in previous performances, but made no major errors and his score was 22.54 points ahead of France’s Kevin Aymoz, who had the second-best free skate and won the bronze medal with a total score of 254.64. Russia’s Alexander Samarin took silver with a total score of 265.10, well behind Chen. The order of finish among the top three remained the same as it was after the short program.
Chen hasn’t lost a competition since he finished fifth at the Olympic Games PyeongChang 2018. With this weekend’s performance combined with his win at Skate America, Chen locked in his spot at December’s Grand Prix Final, where he’ll try to win his third straight title. He’s already the first U.S. man to win two Grand Prix Final titles.
Tomoki Hiwatashi, the 19-year-old reigning junior world champion from the U.S., finished in fifth place in his first senior Grand Prix event.
Karen Price is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has covered Olympic & Paralympic sports for various publications. She is a freelance contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.
