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The 19-year-old Olympian, already a 13-point
leader after Saturday's short program, earned 228.80 points for
his free skate, which was superior to the total scores of all
but six of the 20 men's competitors.
"Near perfection," said NBC analyst Tara Lipinski, the 1998
Olympic women's gold medalist.
Chen finished with a total of 342.22 points, ahead of
18-year-old former world junior champion Vincent Zhou, who was
58.21 points adrift in second. Olympian Jason Brown placed third
with 273.08.
"That program went exactly as I wanted it to," said Chen after
his free skate.
Chen piled up the points with four quad jumps to go with his
elegant skating. He is the first to win three consecutive U.S.
titles since Johnny Weir in 2004 to 2006.
While many see him as the favorite to repeat his success at the
world championships in March, Chen was more cautious.
"Worlds is a whole other ballgame," said Chen, who is now a
student at Yale University.
"I'm really excited for it. I'm going to start training as best
as I can for it," added Chen, who won his first world title just
weeks after the disappointment of the Pyeongchang Winter
Olympics, where he failed to win an individual medal.
Chen's only medal at the Games in South Korea was a bronze in
the team competition.
(Reporting by Gene Cherry in Raleigh, North Carolina; Editing by
Peter Rutherford)
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