US favorite Nathan Chen stumbles in men's figure skating opener

GANGNEUNG, South Korea - Somewhere in the midst of hundreds of cascading Winnie the Pooh dolls stood Yuzuru Hanyu.

Oh yeah, there he was, at center ice, bowing to a huge ovation for an Olympic-record short program.

The defending Olympic champion from Japan scored 111.68 points Friday, building more than a four-point lead over Spain’s Javier Fernandez, who happens to share the same coach, two-time Olympic medalist Brian Orser.

Hanyu’s countryman Shoma Uno was third at 104.17, followed by China’s Jin Boyang at 103.32.

Hanyu missed two months of training with an ankle injury and only recently returned to full practices. No matter. He hit every element of a highly difficult program with precision and grace.

“I just wanted to show everyone I’m back, I’m here,” Hanyu said.

Was he ever. In what amounted to a high-wire act complemented by superb spins and intricate footwork amid intense pressure, the top four skaters were magnificent and spotless.

Two-time U.S. champion Nathan Chen, a pre-games favorite, was anything but spot-on. He missed on all his jumps, plummeting to 17th place with a tentative and passionless showing.

“I’ve never been in this spot so I really don’t know what to do,” Chen said. He skated after Hanyu and the Pooh bear delay, something Chen had experienced before without being bothered by it. “I thought I did everything right in my general approach and it just didn’t work out the way it was supposed to.”

Fellow American Adam Rippon finished seventh without attempting a quad in what was otherwise a jumping contest for the men.

Hanyu might have done his best work avoiding the Poohs - sort of his trademark because he collects them - that fell around him when he finished his skate.

The top four men combined to land eight quads and four triple axels in their short programs. They will be flying high again in the free skate on Saturday, when Hanyu attempts to become the first man to repeat as Olympic champion since Dick Button won in 1948 and 1952.

Wearing a military costume complete with epaulets, Russian Dmitri Aliev set the leaping bar very high as the 20th of 30 skaters with a career-best - by far - 98.93 for fifth. He landed two quads, including a lutz that was the second in Olympic competition; American Vincent Zhou did it earlier. Skating in the fourth of five sections often makes it difficult to score too highly, but Aliev shattered that with a strong technical program.

Rippon went just before Aliev, and his scintillating artistry helped him overcome the lack of the quad.

“You know, it was awesome. It felt like a lot of my ups and downs, my hard work, all kind of culminated together in that kind of special Olympic moment,” said Rippon, who lay flat on his back soaking up applause at the conclusion of his routine.

Zhou skated third overall, landed that first quad lutz in an Olympics and was clean except for not getting the full rotations on his triple axel. He stood 12th with a season best of 84.53.