Canada's Keegan Messing performs his free program in the men's figure skating competition at the Winter Olympics in Beijing on Feb. 10, 2022.Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press
Canadian figure skater Keegan Messing finished 11th in men’s singles at the Beijing Olympics, just three days after he arrived in China.
The United States’ Nathan Chen won gold with a total score of 332.60, followed by Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama (310.05) and Shoma Uno (293.00).
Messing, a 30-year-old from Girdwood, Alaska, opened with a big quadruple toe loop, but downgraded his second quad to a triple, leaving him with a total of 265.61 points.
Messing was ninth after the short program on Tuesday.
Messing only arrived at the Games on Monday after a positive COVID-19 test result kept him from boarding the Canadian charter flight to Beijing. Needing to produce four negative tests to get the green light, he finally was cleared to fly, travelling through Montreal and Milan en route to Beijing.
His positive test meant he missed competing as part of the team event, in which Canada finished fourth.
Messing, who competes for Canada because his mom Sally was born in Edmonton, was 12th at the Pyeongchang Olympics, and sixth at the world championships last spring.