Column: Nathan Chen wins his sixth national title at U.S. figure skating championships

Nathan Chen won his sixth straight U.S. men’s figure skating championship despite falling twice during his free skate Sunday at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, errors that had him laughing because they were so absurd — and because he still won by more than 25 points.

A few hours later Chen, the first American man to win six straight singles titles since Dick Button won seven straight starting in 1946, was nominated to the U.S. Olympic team for the Beijing Games next month. He finished with 328.01 points even though he lost two points for those falls. “Silly things happen all the time,” he said, smiling.

Choosing Chen, a three-time world champion and fifth-place finisher at the 2018 Games, was easy. Choosing the other two nominees became tough for U.S. Figure Skating’s selection committee when Vincent Zhou experienced a meltdown in the free skate, consummate artist Jason Brown again showed he hasn’t mastered the art of quadruple jumping, and 17-year-old Ilia Malinin came out of nowhere to deliver two brilliant performances that put him second with 302.48 points.

Ultimately, the committee put a priority on Brown’s experience and lyrical skating over Malinin’s immense promise to chose Brown and Zhou to join Chen in Beijing.

“It’s pretty incredible to be up here with Nathan and Vincent,” Brown said during a news conference.

Zhou faltered in his free skate, stepping out of a quadruple lutz jump, putting his hands down on another jump, and underrotating other jumps while dropping from second after the short program to third. He also fell on a triple axel. His two-day total was 290.16.

Brown fell on the only quadruple jump he attempted in his performance to music from “Schindler’s List” and earned a two-day total of 289.78 while finishing fourth. His coach, Tracy Wilson, tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday morning and couldn’t work with him before he skated.

Brown, 27, made the 2014 Olympic team but didn’t earn a berth at the 2018 Games.

Malinin, who ranked third after the short program Saturday, cleanly landed four quadruple jumps Sunday and developed a rapport with the audience. “Throwing down a program like that at his first senior championships is amazing,” Chen said of Malinin.

Elliott reported remotely from Los Angeles.