Two people familiar with the events told AP late Wednesday that Bach, in a private meeting with the skaters in Beijing, reiterated the IOC stance that no medals ceremonies would be held for events involving Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva. The people did not want their names used because the meeting was confidential.

Officials from the International Olympic Committee did not immediately respond to an email query from AP.

Men’s champion Nathan Chen and the U.S. finished runner-up to Russia in the team event last week, but the outcome was quickly thrown into chaos when reports surfaced that Valieva had used a banned medication.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled Valieva was still eligible to compete in this week’s women’s event while her case wound through the anti-doping system. That case will ultimately determine the status of the medals. Valieva led the women’s contest after the short program.

The nine-person U.S. team stands to at least get silver but could end up with the gold if Valieva is disqualified. The skaters had already received boxes for storing their medals when they learned the ceremony was off.

The people familiar with the meeting said torches used during the traditional Olympic flame relay had already been given to team staff to be presented later to the athletes.

After the CAS decision, U.S. Olympic and Paralympic CEO Sarah Hirshland said the federation was “disappointed by the message this decision sends” and suggested athletes were denied the confidence of knowing they competed on a level playing field.

Neither USOPC officials nor officials at U.S. Figure Skating immediately responded to emails from AP seeking comment.

Ten years later, Chen sat alongside Arutyunyan as his scores were read and that dream realized.

With a nearly perfect free skate on the heels of a record-setting short program, the 22-year-old Yale student walked away with the gold medal at the Beijing Games on Thursday. He became the first American figure skating champion since Evan Lysacek in 2010 and capped one of the most dominant four-year runs in the history of the sport.

“My mom and I grew up quite poor. We really didn’t have much money,” Chen said. “She would just scrap together some dollars to try to pay Raf, and Raf obviously knew about the situation and thanks to the kindness of his heart, was able to just continue taking me in, and taking as much money as we could provide him.”

Arutyunyan would try to give the money back sometimes, Chen said, “but I would always try to stick it in his pocket.”

On Thursday, Chen was able to give his old coach something priceless.

“I’m happy. Just emotional,” Arutyunyan said. “He made it.”

Inside historic Capital Indoor Stadium in China, the nation both his parents immigrated from, Chen landed all five of his quads during his “Rocketman” program set to the soaring film score by Elton John. The statistics and data science major finished with an insurmountable total of 332.60 points, just three off his own world record and 22 points ahead of his closest competition. Yuma Kagiyama and Shoma Uno of Japan took silver and bronze.

Chen also firmly put in the past any lingering memories of his brutal disappointment four years ago in Pyeongchang, when not even a monumental free skate could rescue his medal hopes after a disastrous short program.

“It means the world,” he said. “I’m just so happy.”

This gold medal might not be the last Chen takes home, either.

The Americans, who earned silver behind the Russians in the team event Monday, were awaiting confirmation from the IOC and International Skating Union that “legal issues” holding up the medal ceremony were related to reports of doping linked to their biggest star, Kamila Valieva. That could ultimately elevate the U.S. to the gold medal, a second for Chen.

“I mean, I don’t really feel like I’m the most qualified person to talk about it,” Chen said. “Whatever ends up being the case will be the case, but I’m still wrapped up in what I was able to do today.”

The Salt Lake City native did his part for the American team with a winning short program last Friday. Vincent Zhou, who was forced to withdraw from the individual event due to a positive COVID-19 test, would also earn a gold medal for the U.S. because he performed his free skate on Sunday.

The suave, down-to-earth Chen and his Japanese rivals separated themselves from the field during their short programs, when Chen shattered the world record with a flawless performance to “La Boheme.” When they took to the ice for the free skate, Kagiyama and Uno made just enough mistakes to clear the way for Chen’s coronation.

Performing to “Bolero,” one of the most popular musical selections of the Beijing Games, Uno under-rotated a quad salchow and quad toe loop, then was dinged for his combination spin late in the program to finish with 293 points.

Then it was the 18-year-old Kagiyama, performing to music from the film “Gladiator,” who popped his triple toe loop and triple salchow. It was still enough to score 310.05 points and earn a fist pump in the kiss-and-cry area, but not enough to add any pressure on Chen, who was calmly skating across the placid ice as Kagiyama’s score was read.

With a socially distanced crowd watching Thursday afternoon in Beijing, and millions back home on late-night TV, Chen soared through his opening quad salchow. He landed four more effortless quads, his only slight bobble coming on a late combination sequence, and couldn’t wipe the grin from his face as he seemingly reached for the sky.

The lyrics to “Rocketman” that played through the old home of ping-pong diplomacy — “And I think it����ap gonna be a long, long time, ’til touchdown brings me ’round again” — seemed altogether fitting for the moment.

Chen basked in the spotlight in the middle of the ice, then headed off to hear his scores, which by that point were a mere formality. Once they were read, Chen’s longtime coach raised his arm like a triumphant boxer.

“He deserves it,” said American Jason Brown, who finished in sixth place. “I’ve gotten to compete with him over the last four years — at all the world championships, every national championship, the Grand Prix. There is no one more deserving. He worked so hard. He’s so unbelievably talented. I’m so proud to be a teammate.”

While the spotlight shined bright as ever on Chen, it seemed to fade away for his longtime hero and Japanese rival.

Yuzuru Hanyu arrived in Beijing aiming to become the first men’s skater since Gillis Grafstrom in 1928 to win a third straight Olympic gold medal. But after missing most of the past year to an ankle injury, the 27-year-old struggled through his short program on Tuesday, essentially taking him out of contention for a medal.

All that was left for Hanyu was a go-for-broke shot at the quad axel, a 4 1/2-revolution jump that has never been landed in competition. He came close but couldn’t quite hold onto the landing, then fell again on his quad salchow before an emotional finish to what could be his final performance on Olympic ice.

His score left Hanyu in fourth, just out of the medals behind his two teammates.

And, of course, behind the new American champion.

When his skates touched down for the final time in a historic arena in Beijing, he was an Olympic gold medalist.

Up at Genting Snow Park, Chloe Kim nailed all five jumps on her first run through the Secret Garden Olympic halfpipe, enough for her to easily defend her Olympic title on Thursday.

It was the United States’ best day yet at the Beijing Games. The United States also won gold in the Olympics’ first mixed team aerials event, giving it a total of four gold medals and 10 overall.

Chen, whose parents immigrated from China, had a memorable free skate to finally put behind him the immense disappointment from four years ago, when a nightmarish short program in South Korea dashed his medal hopes.

Skating his “Rocketman” program set to the film score by Elton John, the 22-year-old Chen landed all five of his quads to leave no question he was the best in the world. He finished with 332.60 points, three off his own world record and 22 ahead of silver medalist Yuma Kagiyama of Japan. Shoma Uno of Japan took bronze.

“It means the world. I’m just so happy,” said Chen, who was relaxed and expressive throughout his routine.

Chen, who is from Salt Lake City, took off with an opening quad salchow. He effortlessly landed four more quads. He had a slight bobble on a late combination sequence.

When his scores were read, coach Rafael Arutyunyan raised Chen’s left arm like a championship boxer.

In the Capital Indoor Stadium, where the United States and China played the first matches of the pingpong diplomacy in 1971, Chen made some history of his own by capping one of the most dominant four-year runs in skating history. Since his disappointment in Pyeongchang, Chen has won three straight world championships — the 2020 competition was canceled because of the pandemic — and extended his run of national championships to six.

Chen is the first American figure skating champion since Evan Lysacek in 2010.

KIM’S CORONATION

Chloe Kim was so good on her first run down the halfpipe that it didn’t matter that she failed to land a big trick on her last run, aka the victory lap. The 21-year-old, who started snowboarding as a kid in Southern California, became the first woman to win consecutive Olympic titles on the halfpipe.

The last rider into the halfpipe on the first run, Kim landed all five jumps, including a front and backside 1080 — three spins each — and a 900. She seemed to amaze even herself, twice putting her hands to her head at the end of the run, which earned a score of 94.

Kim had struggled in practice before the competition began.

“I was just so proud of myself. I had the worst practice ever,” she said. “I probably landed my run twice when I’m used to landing it eight times. That kind of puts you in a weird headspace.”

IOC President Thomas Bach and China’s superstar freestyle skier Eileen Gu were in the crowd. Gu even hugged Kim between runs.

Queralt Castellet of Spain took the silver medal in her fifth Olympics. Sena Tomita of Japan held off Cai Xuetong of China for bronze.

Shaun White will try for his second straight halfpipe gold medal and fourth overall on Friday in his fifth and final Olympics. Kim joined White as the only snowboarders to win back-to-back halfpipe golds. White did it in 2006 and 2010. After finishing fourth in Sochi, the 35-year-old from Carlsbad, California, returned to the top of the podium in 2018.

SHIFFRIN RESETS

The U.S. ski team said two-time Olympic gold medalist Mikaela Shiffrin will compete in the super-G on Friday. Shiffrin failed to finish both the giant slalom and slalom, missing a gate within seconds of starting each race.

She had two training runs on the super-G course Thursday. The 26-year-old from Colorado never has entered a super-G at an Olympics but did win it at the 2019 world championships.

“I will try to reset again, and maybe try to reset better this time,” Shiffrin said after the slalom. “But I also don’t know how to do better because,” she continued, before pausing, “because I just don’t.”

Shiffrin is trying to become the first Alpine ski racer from the United States to win three Olympic golds across a career.

MIXED TEAM AERIALS

The American trio of Ashley Caldwell, Christopher Lillis and Justin Schoenefeld each earned their first Winter Games medals in mixed team aerials, the first time the United States medaled in the freestyle skiing discipline in a dozen years. Lillis’ back double full-full-double full was given the highest score of any trick in the finals, and the U.S. title was assured when Schoenefeld followed with a clean back double full-full-full.

FOLLOWING HIS FATHER

Austrian skier Johannes Strolz won the Olympic gold medal in the Alpine combined race 34 years after his father, Hubert, did the same.

The 29-year-old Strolz was fourth fastest after the downhill run, but he was half a second quicker than anyone else in the slalom. He edged first-run leader Aleksander Aamodt Kilde of Norway by 0.58 seconds. Jack Crawford of Canada took bronze.

The combined adds the times from one downhill run and one slalom run.

Hubert Strolz won gold in combined at the 1988 Calgary Olympics and the silver in the giant slalom.

“It����ap really a great moment for me and I’m so thankful that I finally can live my dream and have this gold medal in my hands like my father did in 1988 in Calgary and, yeah, just a dream come true,” Strolz said. “The gold medal really means the world to me.”

DOPING REPORT

Russian figure skating superstar Kamila Valieva practiced as usual, hours after reports surfaced that she had tested positive for a banned substance.

The 15-year-old Valieva, who was expected to deliver her nation its third straight Olympic gold medal in women’s figure skating, tested positive for a banned heart medication before the Beijing Games, the Russian newspaper RBC reported.

Valieva scored maximum points in the women’s individual sections of the team event, which the Russians skaters won.

The International Skating Union declined to address the reports, saying it “cannot disclose any information about any possible anti-doping rule violation.”

With a confident smirk as he took the ice, the 22-year-old Chen avenged his poor performance from four years ago in Pyeongchang in the biggest way possible. He opened with a perfect quad flip, breezed through a triple axel that sometimes causes him problems, then drilled his quad flip-triple toe loop combination to leave most of the crowd in awe.

Chen’s total was nearly six points ahead of Yuma Kagiyama, who sits in second place, and nearly 20 ahead of Hanyu, the two-time Olympic champion who bailed on his opening quad attempt during a calamitous short program.

“I was just elated,” said Chen, who helped the U.S. win team silver earlier this week. “At the last Olympics, both of the short programs didn’t go the way I wanted. To finally get an opportunity to skate the programs I wanted feels really good.”

Now, all that’s left is a strong free skate Thursday for the charismatic Chen to become an Olympic champion.

“Every opportunity I get at competitions I should be grateful for,” he said, “and especially the Olympics.”

Kagiyama drilled a pair of quads and a triple axel during his own dynamic short program to finish with 108.12 points, while fellow Japanese skater Shoma Uno — the reigning Olympic silver medalist — was third with 105.90 points.

Instead of Hanyu, their longtime idol, it will be Kagiyama and Uno standing in the way of Chen’s gold medal.

“I feel really shocked today, but I have one more chance,” said Hanyu, who believes his skate hit a hole early in his short program, forcing him to bail out of a planned quad salchow and leaving him in eighth place with 95.15 points.

The showdown between Chen and Hanyu has been building the past four years, ever since what the young American called a “disastrous” short program in Pyeongchang took Chen out of medal contention before he felt he had arrived.

Rather than taking a break afterward, Chen doubled down, working tirelessly with longtime coach Rafael Arutyunyan while simultaneously working toward his degree from Yale. He sharpened every aspect of his figure skating, from technical marks to his artistry, and he began to put together programs that nobody else had the nerve to try.

His short program in Beijing, with a base value of 36.27 points, was the hardest attempted in competition.

Chen’s ferociously steady build toward his second Olympics, a stretch that included three world titles and the most recent of his six national championships, contrasted starkly with the bumpy, injury-filled path that Hanyu took to Beijing.

After becoming the first man to successfully defend an Olympic title since American skater Dick Button in 1952, Hanyu took a break from the sport to rest ligament damage in his right ankle. He skipped the Grand Prix season in 2020 because of the pandemic, then missed this past Grand Prix season because of more issues with his right ankle.

But just when it appeared that Uno and Kagiyama had surpassed the 27-year-old Hanyu, he showed up at the Japanese championship in December and promptly regained his crown.

The long-awaited matchup between two of figure skating’s titans was on for Beijing.

It lasted about as long as it takes to lace up skates.

The preternaturally poised Hanyu, skating well before Chen, was seconds into his program when he set up for the first of two planned quads. But something was amiss the moment he took off, and Hanyu bailed out of the salchow to an audible gasp from the carefully separated crowd of a few thousand people inside Capital Indoor Stadium.

The quad salchow carries a base value of 9.70 points; Hanyu was given none of them.

“I’m happy with my skating after the first jump,” Hanyu said.

As if to drive home his extraordinary misstep, though, Uno was next on the ice and performed flawlessly. He landed his opening quad flip, then made a quad toe loop-triple toe loop combination look easy. By the time Uno finished his program, set to a Vivaldi concerto, he had amassed 105.90 points and taken over first place.

Not to mention made himself, rather than Uno’s more famous teammate, the biggest obstacle to Chen’s gold medal.

On Monday night, he was left worrying about whether he might test positive for COVID-19 before his event began.

That����ap because his teammate Vincent Zhou returned a positive test earlier in the day, shortly after Team USA won a surprising silver medal in the team event. Chen was left to wonder whether his own test might come back positive.

“I don’t have much information other than the fact he tested for it,” Chen said after a late-afternoon final practice Monday, which was also attended by his biggest rival, two-time defending Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu.

“Everything out there is speculation,” Chen said. “Where did you get it? Where have you been going around? I’ve not really been around (Zhou) and any time that I’ve been around, I’ve been wearing a mask.”

Later Monday, Zhou announced he would have to withdraw from the men’s competition.

“I have been doing everything in my power to stay free of COVID since the start of the pandemic,” Zhou said in an emotional Instagram post. “I’ve taken all the precautions I can. I’ve isolated myself so much that the loneliness I’ve felt in the last month or two has been crushing at times.”

Chen has been taking so much precaution that he wears his mask in the dining hall, only dipping it down to take a bite before putting it right back in place. He isn’t taking any chances with what could be his final Olympics, especially given the long, four-year wait since his disappointing fifth-place finish at the Pyeongchang Games.

“I mean, you know, because it����ap happened — everyone is talking about it and thinking about it,” Chen said. “And hopefully that gets people involved a little bit more, being a little more careful and doing what they need to do.”

The showdown between Chen and Hanyu is one of the marquee events of the Winter Olympics, so much so that their programs will start around 10 a.m. in Beijing so that they can be broadcast in prime time in the eastern U.S. Many of the other events in which the American contingent is not expected to medal will take place in the evening in Beijing.

That����ap the kind of attention that the 22-year-old Chen has generated ever since leaving South Korea.

Rather than sit back and rest, Chen drilled even harder into his programs with his longtime coach, Rafael Arutyunyan, even while he juggled his studies at Yale. And the results came through on the ice, where Chen has won three consecutive world championships, pushed his national championship streak to six and has been generally unbeatable.

His only loss since Pyeongchang? To his teammate Zhou at Skate America last fall.

The reason he’s been so dominant has been his array of quads, the jump that was once cutting edge but now has become standard fair. Most of the skaters in the field can land them but few do so with the degree of elevation, difficulty and, well, panache — not to mention the remarkable consistency that sees Chen rarely hit the ice.

“If I wake up on the right side of the bed they are effortless,” he joked, “and if not, they are not so effortless. I try my best; sometimes they are good, sometimes they are bad. As with anything, you learn any time you make a mistake, and you try to make it better the next time.”

The only quad that Chen has never landed — though he’s tried a few times while goofing around in practice — is the quad axel, which involves 4 1/2 rotations. In fact, only a few have tried it in competition and nobody has ever landed it.

Hanyu could change that this week. He landed a couple of shaky ones during his final practice Monday.

“Yuzuru has definitely pushed me a lot,” Chen said. “Long before I competed against him, he was that benchmark for what an exceptional figure skater should be. I remember watching him when I was at the Junior Grand Prix Final, he was at the senior final and I was amazed at how good he was, how much he commanded the audience. He was a shining star.

“I went home,” Chen said, “and I was like: ‘Oh, man. That����ap what figure skating is supposed to be like.”

Chen has had plenty of success in his head-to-head meetings with Hanyu since Pyeongchang. But while marquee events such as the Grand Prix Final are important, and the world championships are nearly the pinnacle of the sport, nothing tops winning a gold medal at the Olympics, and so far that is the one thing Chen has yet to accomplish.

If he continues to test negative, and takes the ice as scheduled, that quest begins anew on Tuesday in Beijing.

Six consecutive national championships, the most since two-time Olympic champion Dick Button in the 1940s and ’50s.

Three consecutive world championships, the best run by an American since Scott Hamilton in the early ’80s.

Nearly four years with only a single defeat, a run that includes three consecutive wins at the Grand Prix Final.

The only thing he’s yet to accomplish? Winning Olympic gold.

The 22-year-old Chen blew his chance four years ago in Pyeongchang, when an unusually poor short program cost him a chance at a medal; he rallied to finish fifth. But he’s about to get another shot next month in Beijing, when Chen goes toe-to-toe with two-time defending gold medalist Yuzuru Hanyu and a stacked field at historic Capital Indoor Stadium.

“Every season my goal is to keep improving,” Chen said after shattering his personal-best score at nationals last week. “I’m looking forward to going back and working on whatever goals I have for the Games. I’m just enjoying this moment.”

The showdown between Chen and Hanyu will be the highlight of the entire Olympic program.

The American comes armed with an array of quadruple jumps that rival anyone in the world, while his artistry takes him beyond being just an athlete to being a bona fide performer. The biggest question surrounding Chen is what programs he’ll unveil in Beijing — the programs he used with mixed results earlier in the season or the programs he used at nationals, a short to “La Boheme” and an Elton John medley for his free skate that he used during the 2019-20 season.

“I’m really happy with these programs,” Chen said, giving credit to choreographer Shae-Lynn Bourne, “and that����ap why it����ap awesome to be able to have such amazing choreographers consistently deliver great programs for me, so it����ap easy to be able to go back and look through all the work she’s done with me.”

Hanyu withdrew from both of his Grand Prix assignments because an injured right ankle, but he dazzled last month in winning the Japanese championship. His key to victory could rest in becoming the first skater ever to land the quadruple axel — a jump that involves 4 1/2 rotations that he has landed in practice.

“Beijing is an extension of everything I’m doing,” Hanyu said, “and I know I just might have to go all in now.”

Others to watch in the men’s competition include Shoma Uno, the reigning Olympic silver medalist who won the NHK Trophy last fall; Vincent Zhou, the American who beat Chen at Skate America and was second to Uno at the NHK Trophy; and the Russian star Mikhail Kolyada, who finished second at his two Grand Prix assignments this season.

WOMEN’S COMPETITION

It����ap almost a foregone conclusion that the gold medal will be headed to Russia for a third straight Winter Games. The only question is whether it will be around the neck of world record-holder Kamila Valieva or one of her teammates.

Valieva’s score of 272.71 points at Rostelecom Cup was more than 35 points higher than anyone else.

The Russians’ biggest competition will come from Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto. But keep an eye on 17-year-old Alysa Liu, who withdrew from U.S. nationals after a COVID-19 positive but whose jumping ability gives her a chance at the medal stand.

PAIRS COMPETITION

The U.S. only qualified one pairs for the 2018 Winter Games: Alexa Knierim and Chris Knierim. The Americans have two headed to Beijing, and one of them is Alexa Knierim and new partner Brandon Frazier; they teamed up after Chris Knierim’s retirement. The other is Ashley Cain-Gribble and Timothy LeDuc, the first non-binary Olympic athlete.

They’re unlikely to compete for medals, though. Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov of Russia are the heavy favorites, while reigning silver medalists Sui Wenjing and Han Cong give host China its best shot at the podium.

DANCE COMPETITION

Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue finished one spot out of the medals in Pyeongchang. They lead a trio of American ice dance teams headed to Beijing, and all have a chance to medal. Madison Chock and Evan Bates beat Hubbell and Donohue at nationals last week, while Kaitlin Hawayak and Jean-Luc Baker train at the same school in Montreal as them.

Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France lost gold by the slimmest of margins in Pyeongchang. They return as favorites with Russia’s Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov and Canada’s Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier also in the mix.

TEAM COMPETITION

Russia’s strength and depth, particularly in women and pairs, make it the heavy favorite to win team gold after finishing second to Canada in Pyeongchang. The Canadians and Americans could have a spirited competition for silver and bronze.

A selection committee picked the Olympic squad, and had to add three skaters who did not finish nationals: Alysa Liu on the women’s team and Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier in pairs. Liu and Frazier tested positive for COVID-19.

The remainder of the roster has U.S. champion Mariah Bell and Karen Chen in the women’s competition; gold medalists Ashley Cain-Gribble and Timothy LeDuc in pairs; titlists Madison Chock and Evan Bates, plus Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue and Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker in ice dance.

Brown missed the podium at nationals, finishing .38 points behind Zhou and nearly 13 points behind rising 17-year-old star Ilia Malinin. He was picked as first alternate despite his dazzling display of quads on Sunday.

Like most young skaters, Frazier had developed a carefully crafted picture in his mind of what it would be like to learn he finally realized his Olympic dreams.

Reality looked a whole lot different.

There was no hugging family members. No tearful celebration with friends. Only a Facetime call with his pairs partner, Alexa Knierim, while Frazier waited for the negative COVID-19 tests that would finally free him from his hotel quarantine.

“I never imagined it like it actually went down last night,” Frazier said Sunday, four days after his positive test forced the pair to withdraw from the U.S. Figure Skating Championships and petition for a spot at the Winter Games.

“But that����ap when I knew it meant the absolute world to me,” Frazier said, “because it meant just as much to me.”

Gain-Gribble said she learned she was going after finishing “a huge pizza and cookie dough, so I was feeling pretty good.” LeDuc, the first non-binary Olympic athlete, got his call just as he was arriving to his family’s Airbnb rental.

As for Frazier, sitting alone in his hotel room?

“I hugged the crap out of that pillow,” he said with a Cheshire cat-like grin.

There was no drama in the three dance teams picked. Chock and Bates will carry the momentum of a record-setting win at nationals to their third Olympics; Hubbell and Donohue will try to improve on their fourth-place finish at the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang; and Hawayek and Baker give the Americans a third team that could stand on the podium.

“It����ap the honor of a lifetime. It����ap the greatest honor we can achieve in our sport,” said Bates, who will make his fourth Olympic trip after going in 2010 with former partner Emily Samuelson. “We’re fortunate to go back for the third time, or fourth time, but it never gets old. It����ap always special each time.”

Unlike their teammates, Hawayek and Baker will experience the Olympics for the first time. It����ap been a long and difficult road for the pair, both of whom have come back from concussions, including Hawayek’s this past summer.

“With full transparency, I didn’t know what the course of the injury was going to look like as we entered the Olympic season. There was a lot of doubt whether we’d be able to get back to a competition-ready place,” she said. “I think we’ve set ourselves up to continue to grow as the winter went on.”

All three American teams, who are close friends as much as rivals and training partners, work under the watchful eyes of Marie-France Dubreuil, Patrice Lauzon and Romain Haguenauer at the Gadbois Centre in Montreal.

Also training there are 2018 Olympic silver medalists Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, the French ice dancers who had the highest scorer of the Grand Prix season and likely their biggest competition in Beijing.

The three American dance teams plan to spend the next three weeks in Canada, putting in the final work for Beijing. But like the rest of the U.S. contingent, their biggest goal is not so much fine-tuning the performances but ensuring they stay healthy with COVID-19 running rampant.

“We’re in our bubble, doing what we can control, and right now the No. 1 concern for all of us in the next 20 days is to be healthy,” Hubbell said. “We all have to travel and be on an airplane and be around people, and certainly COVID is our No. 1 concern. It����ap the next thing that can stand in the way of all our dreams. We’re going to be as diligent as we can be to do our best and represent Team USA with honor.”

Not since Dick Button won each title from 1946-52 has any American man had such a streak of success. Throw in two world championships and being unbeaten since not medaling at the 2018 Olympics, and Chen already has a resume for the ages.

At age 21.

“It����ap incredible to try to follow in his footsteps,” Chen said of Button, a two-time Olympic winner.

Chen pretty much ignored the rough beginning of his free skate, when he put his hands down and stepped out of a quad lutz. He hit four more quads, three in combination, and a triple axel deep into his program. There was a fluidity to his choreography and spins, and his 322.28 points were unmatchable by anybody in the field.

“I was a little timid today. Honestly that����ap on me,” Chen said. “I feel like I didn’t really tackle my elements. I was focusing on conserving energy. That����ap not the right approach. I think that����ap what caused the first element to have an error. The rest of the program I was trying to make sure I stayed on my feet. That was my mindset throughout the program.

“Wasn’t really exactly the skate I’d like to have, but at least I was able to stand up on all the rest of the jumps and I guess move on from here.”

His main challengers couldn’t stand up throughout their free skates, and Vincent Chou’s 291.38 total wasn’t in the same stratosphere as Chen. Chou popped a quad flip and fell on a quad lutz, but the 2018 Olympian still held on to second place.

Jason Brown, the final competitor at these fan-less nationals at the Orleans Arena — they were moved from San Jose, California, due to the COVID-19 pandemic — stayed in third place at 276.92 points.

Other winners at nationals, which could be the last significant competition of the season should worlds in March at Stockholm be canceled for the second straight year, were: Bradie Tennell with her second women’s title; Madison Hubbell and Zach Donohue for their third ice dance championship; and Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier in pairs.

Knierim had won two titles with husband Chris, who retired before this season, and Frazier had earned on with previous partner Haven Denney.

___

AP Sports Writers Barry Wilner and Bernie Wilson contributed.

So maybe he’s not perfect.

Until then, there was hardly any hint of a misstep for Chen, who lived up to his own impressive standard by winning his third straight title at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. The reigning world champion, Chen was biggest star at this competition coming in, and he won the final event Sunday with a score of 342.22 — over 58 points more than runner-up Vincent Zhou. Jason Brown was third.

“The score definitely took me by surprise,” Chen said. “It was a lot bigger than I was expecting, but ultimately scores are scores. I’m happy with what I did and hopefully I can continue to do that in other competitions.”

Chen’s free skate alone earned 228.80 points, which was higher than the total score for 14 of the 20 skaters.

“Honestly, it’s incredible,” said Brown, who skated immediately before Chen. “I feel so lucky that Nathan is a teammate. That is how I look at him. Obviously, we compete against each other at nationals, but every time we’re on the international stage, we are teammates, and I admire him, and it’s unbelievable.”

The 19-year-old Chen landed four quad jumps in his routine, one of which was in combination. When he wasn’t impressing with his jumping ability, he kept the crowd captivated with his easy, elegant skating to “Land of All” by Woodkid.

Chen began the program with a soaring quad lutz.

“I thought that would be a smart choice, just to put it as the first jump, get that out of the gate, not have to worry about it after,” he said. “I really tried to narrow in on the things that I know make the jump work.”

Next up was a quad flip and a quad toe loop. Those three jumps earned Chen over 47 points, and he hadn’t even started his combinations.

At the Olympics last year, Chen became the first man to land six quadruple jumps in program — that wasn’t enough for a medal, but he did win the free skate. He later won the world title, and now he seems as strong as ever despite balancing training with his studies at Yale.

“I’m just so thankful that Yale has given me the ice time for me to continue pursuing my dreams outside of school,” he said. “I definitely learned a lot more about how to handle my schedule last semester. … It’s just reassuring, knowing that I can handle the two.”

Zhou’s program included four quads as well, but one was downgraded when he fell, and two others were under-rotated. Brown, the 2015 U.S. champion, improved from a sixth-place showing at nationals last year, and he appears to be on an upswing after relocating to Toronto to train under Brian Orser.

Zhou made the podium for a third straight year at nationals, although Chen was blocking his path to victory each time.

“Obviously, I’m happy with the results, but there’s still so much room for improvement, and that gives me hope for the future,” Zhou said. “To achieve what I did here this week and still have … opportunity for growth, is a really great thing. Looking ahead to, hopefully, Four Continents and worlds, I know that I can do even better.”

It’s hard to see how much better Chen could perform, although his costume needed a bit of work — his shirt started to slide up on some of his spins.

NOTES: U.S. Figure Skating announced that Chen, Zhou and Brown have been selected for the world championships in March. Pairs national champions Ashley Cain and Timothy LeDuc were selected as well, along with the top three ice dancing teams from Saturday night’s competition: Madison Hubbell and Zach Donohue, Madison Chock and Evan Bates, and Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker. Bradie Tennell and Mariah Bell, who finished second and third in Friday’s women’s competition behind 13-year-old Alysa Liu, were also picked for worlds.

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Even on the busiest days at the Broadmoor Skating Club in Colorado Springs, when Zakrajsek must skate off to another section of the ice to start the next lesson with a waiting pupil while Zhou completes his compulsory cool-down laps, Zhou will skate to wherever his coach is before departing to bow in gratitude for the wisdom he has imparted.

“That kind of respect is so rare,” Zakrajsek said in an interview this week. But it is a hallmark of his most driven pupils, particularly the would-be Olympians whose parents are first-generation American immigrants. Two among them, Zhou, 17, and Mirai Nagasu, 24, are such examples.

In many ways, Zakrajsek, 54, who was reared in life-lessons from his Polish and Slovenian grandmothers, shares a language with his first-generation American skaters, whether of Asian or Eastern European descent.

“We were taught to appreciate our grandparents’ struggles to come over to the country and make a new life from the time I was a little kid,” Zakrajsek recalled of his childhood in Garfield Heights, Ohio. “Both of my grandmothers and my mother and father gave us the history, that Eastern European work-ethic: ‘Make something of yourself! If you have a dream, work at it!’ So when I see that in skaters, I think about it. And I think, a lot of that is the story of our country, right?”

Of the 14-member 2018 U.S. Olympic figure-skating team, six are of Asian descent. Nagasu’s parents are first-generation Japanese immigrants. The parents of Zhou and Nathan Chen are first-generation Chinese immigrants. Karen Chen’s parents emigrated from Taiwan in 1995. And siblings Maia and Alex Shibutani, whose Japanese parents met as musicians at Harvard, became the first ice dancers of Asian descent to win Olympic medals Tuesday, when they took bronze. The previous week, they joined Nagasu, Nathan Chen, Bradie Tennell, Adam Rippon, Chris Knierim and Alexa Scimeca-Knierim in clinching the United States’ bronze in the team event.

The collective success of these figure skaters, with the women’s singles event to come this week, is testament to how the 2018 U.S. Olympic team has benefited from the participation of athletes with a diverse heritage. On a subtler level, it stands as a formidable case against the closed-border sentiment that has found new voice in a country forged by immigrants.

Nathan Chen, 18, who is coached by Rafael Artyunyan, a Harley-riding, Armenian-native product of the former Soviet Union figure-skating system, leaves the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics with bronze medal in the team event and a place in the sport’s history.

After a disastrous start to his quest for an individual medal, Chen became the first to land six quadruple jumps in a fearless, furious effort to gain ground in the following night’s decisive free skate. While he scored the top marks for the performance, it wasn’t enough for a medal, vaulting him from 17th to fifth in the final standings.

Refusing to quit, Chen had explained earlier in the week, was a family value. His father, a medical research scientist born in rural China, worked and attended school after moving to the United States in 1988 while supporting his family of five children. Youngest among them, Chen first learned to skate in his sister’s hand-me-down boots. His promising early results, winning the U.S. novice championships at age 10, helped land invaluable financial aid from a foundation started by three-time U.S. champion Michael Weiss that helped defray the cost of his lessons.

“My parents did not come to the U.S. with much; they had a lot of hardship,” Chen recounted. “We were all just taught to work as hard as we could, use these opportunities to advance and just really appreciate all that we had.”

Nagasu, who launches pursuit of an individual Olympic medal with Wednesday’s women’s short program, already has etched her place in figure-skating history, as well, becoming the first American woman (and third in the world) to land a triple axel in Olympic competition. She did so Feb. 12, helping the United States earn bronze in the team event. But her parents, Kiyoto and Ikuko, weren’t on hand to watch. They were busy running their sushi restaurant in Arcadia, California, and learned of the outcome only after the dinner rush.

“They have to make a living somehow, and the sushi restaurant is how they make their business,” Nagasu explained this week. As a young child, the restaurant doubled as her bedroom; she spent many nights sleeping on a bed in a storage closet while her parents worked. Later, Nagasu went to work alongside them, getting paid in quarters.

“I have a great work ethic because I’ve watched my parents work super-hard,” Nagasu said. “I’m also great at dishwashing because of the restaurant, as well!”

So it is a big deal, Nagasu noted, that her father agreed to close the restaurant for a few days this week — long enough so he and his wife can fly to South Korea to watch their only child compete at the Olympics. She’ll attempt the high-risk triple axel twice more (in Wednesday’s short program and Friday’s free skate) in hopes of winning the individual medal she has dreamed of since finishing fourth at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and being snubbed for a spot on the 2014 Olympic team.

“I’ve learned a lot from my parents. For them to put their business on hold — to come all the way to Korea and to watch me skate — especially for my dad …” Nagasu said, her thought trailing off. “He feels responsible — not just for my mom and for himself and myself — but there are other people who work there, too. He’s always saying, ‘I don’t have time for you! I have to feed the people!'”

Nagasu and fellow Americans Karen Chen and Bradie Tennell are facing an uphill battle at Gangneung Ice Arena, where Russian-born skaters competing under the banner “Olympic Athletes from Russia” and Japanese skaters are expected to dominate. Of the top 13 scores posted in international competition during the 2017-18 season, Russian and Japanese skaters accounted for 11, led by reigning world champion Evgenia Medvedeva and her 15-year-old compatriot Alina Zagitova.

“I think the Russians and the Asians dominate our sport right now because I can see a cultural mind-set of, ‘Nothing is ever good enough,’ ” said Zakrajasek, who sees the same quality in his pupils Zhou and Nagasu, as well several of his Russian-American charges. “No matter how good you are, (the mind-set is) you figure out how to be better, and you do that in every way in your life — as a person, in academics, in your sport, if you play an instrument. It’s an approach to life that makes it very easy as a coach to work with someone like that. … That’s not common, I think, in American society nowadays.”

Veteran figure-skating coach Frank Carroll, who worked with the United States’ most decorated skater, Michelle Kwan, echoed the sentiment.

“Asian skaters are taught discipline from Day One,” Carroll said in a recent telephone interview, “which is different from American kids, who are taught, ‘Oh dear! You have a right to stand up for whatever you think!’ … Are you being abused by a coach who is telling you to do it again?'”

In Zhou’s case, the drive for perfection has come at a price.

The only son of Chinese immigrants, both computer scientists by training, Zhou describes himself as introspective, a poet and philosopher who has little in common with typical 17-year-olds who spend their money at Starbucks, eat Tide Pods and vape.

He approaches figure-skating as his job. And his mother sacrificed her own career for his, in 2009, moving him six hours from the family’s home to seek intensive training while his father and sister remained in Palo Alto, California. Splitting up the family meant stretching resources thin. For much of the time, before Zhou moved to Colorado to work with Zakrajsek, he and his mother lived in a one-room apartment.

To the extent Zhou has struggled, it has been confronting his shortcomings after bad practices. His standards for himself are extremely high.

“That’s part of the Asian-American way,” Zhou explained, “so when I don’t meet those standards, I come away feeling just this burning desperation that I didn’t do enough. It has been both good and bad because it has pushed me to do way too much and get injured, which is something that I’ve gotten much smarter about. But it has also helped me be hungry and be motivated to accomplish more.”

Zhou did just that in his Olympic debut, making history as the first to land a quad Lutz in Olympic competition. He went on to finish sixth (one spot behind U.S. teammate Nathan Chen), boosted by a free skate that included five quadruple jumps.

“Our parents basically made it from the bottom up,” Zhou said, reflecting on the Asian-American heritage he considers a gift. ” … Lots of the Asian-Americans on the Olympic team have a similar background, where their parents know what it’s like to struggle and have to work hard to get somewhere. That’s something they teach us, and it has helped us all succeed.”