Vincent Zhou on turning his life inside out, nomadic existence and surprisingly strong figure skating at nationals

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Vincent Zhou on turning his life inside out, nomadic existence and surprisingly strong figure skating at nationals


Vincent Zhou’s plans for this season went completely out the window.

After leaving his previous training base in Colorado Springs last August to begin studies at Brown University in Providence, R.I., where he hoped to finish freshman year before taking a leave, the reigning world bronze medalist found himself without a place nearby to train.

The Brown rink had little available time, its ice conditions were fine for hockey but not figure skating, and the hockey coaches made it clear they didn’t like the way he dug it up with the toe pick.

After briefly enduring a brutal commute to a rink north of Boston, he put skating on hold in early October.

By December, Zhou decided it would be better to put school on hold after finishing one semester, and he moved to Toronto to train with coach Lee Barkell and choreographer Lori Nichol.

With barely two weeks of steady training before nationals, Zhou managed to place fourth, wisely choosing to limit his quadruple jumps to one in each program. It was good enough to earn one of the three 2020 U.S. world team spots based on his two-year body of work after finishing sixth at the 2018 Olympics.

With the World Championships coming up in Montreal, NBCSports.com/figure-skating spoke recently by phone with Zhou about his nomadic existence since the move, his performance at nationals, his expectations for worlds and his plans after that.

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Can U.S. pair Calalang and Johnson repeat their shining moment?

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Can U.S. pair Calalang and Johnson repeat their shining moment?

Recent results would dissuade anyone from getting carried away over what seems a breakthrough performance by a U.S. pair.

Such performances have happened off-and-on in the past few decades, but not since 2011 has a U.S. pair finished in the top six at the World Championships. And not since 1996 has a U.S. pair won a world medal in a non-Olympic year. (Post-Olympic fields at worlds generally are watered down by the absence of the new Olympic medalists.) And not since 2002 has a U.S. pair won a world medal in any year. And only once (2015) since 2007 has a U.S. pair made it to the Grand Prix Final.

Even with those historical caveats, there is reason to be hopeful about Jessica Calalang and Brian Johnson.

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By the numbers: why a different system for team selection would help U.S. Figure Skating

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By the numbers: why a different system for team selection would help U.S. Figure Skating

Two years ago, when there was uproar over who got the final men’s figure skating spot on the 2018 U.S. Olympic team, I wrote that the selection process is too opaque to prevent questions and angry reactions.

There has been some tinkering with the process since, but it still lacks the clarity people need to fully grasp the rationale behind U.S. Figure Skating’s selections for major events, including the final spot in both men’s singles and pairs for the 2020 world championship team.

Why was Vincent Zhou, fourth at the 2020 nationals, picked in men’s singles over Tomoki Hiwatashi, who was third?  Why were Ashley Cain-Gribble and Timothy LeDuc, fourth at the 2020 nationals, picked in pairs over Jessica Calalang and Brian Johnson, who were second with a dazzling free skate?

There are reasonable and defensible answers to both questions (I will get to that later) but the process – based on the notion of a “body of work” - remains murky. 

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Nathan Chen, down for the count after flu, amazes coach to win fourth U.S. title

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Nathan Chen, down for the count after flu, amazes coach to win fourth U.S. title

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Rafael Arutunian showed me a photo on his phone of Nathan Chen sleeping on the floor in a dressing room at Great Park Ice Arena when he was supposed to be practicing earlier this month.

Arutunian said he could have taken the same picture on eight days in the 2 1/2 weeks they spent together at his Irvine, Calif., training base during Chen’s semester break from Yale.

Arutunian would see the flu-ridden and feverish Chen curled up asleep, turn off the light, leave the room and wait until Chen woke up before trying to have him do any training.

In the past, Arutunian said, Chen could train through sickness. This time it was futile.

“He couldn’t move,” Arutunian said.

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International figure skating officials finally get the message and act on conflicts of interest

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International figure skating officials finally get the message and act on conflicts of interest

 For nearly two years, I have loudly and pointedly decried the conflict of interest inherent in allowing presidents of national figure skating federations to judge significant events in the sport.

For most of that time, the cries fell on deaf ears.

Here is my story raising the issue in November 2017.  And here was another when feckless International Skating Union members – led by Skate Canada – voted against evening putting the issue to a vote at its 2018 Congress.

The cases I brought up involved Skate Canada president Leanna Caron, who has shamelessly continued her activities as a judge, and former U.S. Figure Skating president Sam Auxier, who recused himself from judging major events during his presidency but still judged others “with the ISU’s permission.”

But lo and behold, the ISU appears finally to have gotten the message.

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