USA's Nathan Chen lands Olympic-first six quads, finishes 5th

Feb. 17 (UPI) -- American quad king Nathan Chen rebounded from a disastrous short program that left him in 17th place to land six quads, touching down on one of them, for 215.08 points in free skate and a total of 297.35 for fifth.

Chen's six quads were an Olympic first, giving the 18-year-old some element of redemption after his rocky short program start, but it wasn't enough to vault him to the medal stand for the men's singles competition.

Yuzuru Hanyu won gold with 317.85, notching Japan's first medal of the Pyeongchang Olympics. Another Japanese skater, Shorma Uno, won silver and Spain's Javier Fernandez won bronze.

"I have been working on it [putting six quads in the free skate] for a while. It's never really fully come together," Chen said. "I was like, 'I already fell so many times [in performances earlier this week], I might as well go out and throw everything down and see what happens.'"