Zhou, Vincent

Born October 25, 2000 in San Jose (California) in a family of immigrants from China ^[2] . His older sister Vivian is a violinist. Their mother, Fei Ge, is a computer scientist and works in Silicon Valley .

When Vincent was a little over two years old, the family moved to Palo Alto . At the age of 5.5, he began to practice figure skating at Riverside School, six hours from home. His idols were and remain Patrick Chan , Brian Boytano , Michael Weiss , Yuzuru Hanyu and Richard Dornbusch ^{[3] [4]} . Zhou's mother quit her job in December 2009 to focus on his sports education. They went to Riverside on Sundays and returned home on Fridays, while father and sister remained in Palo Alto. In childhood, coaches Julie Launders and Charles Tickner worked with him.

Junior period

In January 2013, the first major success came to him. Vincent won the U.S. junior championship in Omaha , but could not speak at the world junior forum because of his age. For a number of reasons, he had to skip the next season. In the fall of 2015, he took part in the junior stages of the Grand Prix in Austria ^[5] and Slovakia ^[6] , where he finished second, which allowed him to get the right to perform in the junior final ^[7] , where Zhou finished next to the podium ^[8] . In January 2016, he first took part in the US national championship in St. Paul , where he finished at the end of the top ten. In March, he made his debut at the World Junior Championships in Hungarian Debrecen . Where he closed the top five skaters ^[9] .

The next pre-Olympic season, the American skater again began with the junior stages of the Grand Prix. He performed in Japan (silver award) ^[10] . In the land of the rising sun, he managed to improve all his previous sports achievements. Then there was a tournament in Estonia, where a bronze medal was won ^[11] . This did not allow the athlete to get into the next junior final. He became only the first reserve ^[12] . In January 2017, at the national championship in Kansas, the skater won the medal for the first time and immediately silver ^[13] . In mid-March, Zhou played in Taipei at the junior world championship , where he managed to become a winner in a difficult fight with Russian skaters ^[14] . At the same time, he improved his previous sports achievements in total and a short program.

Adult Period

In the Olympic season, the American skater began among adults. In early October, he began a performance at the Finnish Trophy , where he managed to take second place ^[15] . A month later, the athlete made his debut in the Grand Prix series at the Chinese stage , where he finished next to the podium ^[16] . In mid-November, at the French Grand Prix stage, he managed to finish in the middle of the standings ^[17] . At the beginning of the year, at the national championship, his performance was interesting and not forgotten; he finished with a bronze medal ^[18] . The US Federation included him in the Olympic team. In mid-February, in Gangneung, at an individual tournament in the Olympic Games, an American single played very well and improved all his previous achievements. The skater finished sixth in the end.

• Official site
• Vincent Zhou on the official website of the International Skating Union .
• Vincent Zhou at IceNetwork.com