NESN and Berkshire Financial institution have fun Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month – honoring the influence, affect, and achievements of the Asian neighborhood in sports activities.
At seemingly each flip in his determine skating profession, Vincent Zhou has met some type of adversity.
However the roadblocks solely have been momentary for Zhou, as with an unbelievable quantity of willpower the 21-year-old and and two-time U.S. Olympian persevered to change into one of many prime determine skaters on this planet.
Zhou’s newest impediment got here this previous February on the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Recent off serving to the U.S. declare a crew silver medal, Zhou readied himself for the person competitors and was seen as somebody who may find yourself on the rostrum.
Solely he by no means received the possibility for that dream to come back to fruition with Zhou testing constructive for COVID-19 simply days previous to the occasion. It left Zhou heartbroken as he shared an emotional Instagram publish, however simply over a month later he was again on the ice and earned a bronze medal on the 2022 World Determine Skating Championships.
These are simply two accomplishments in a resume chalk filled with them for Zhou, who enrolled at Brown College in Windfall in 2019 earlier than taking a go away from college to give attention to his coaching. Zhou informed The Brown Each day Herald that he intends to return to the school this upcoming fall.
On the 2018 Olympic Video games, Zhou was the youngest member on the U.S. determine skating crew and pulled off a notable feat by turning into the primary skater on the Olympics to land the quadruple Lutz leap within the quick program.
Zhou, who was born in San Jose, Calif., to Chinese language mother and father and grew up in Salt Lake Metropolis, Utah, informed NBC in February he is happy with his quadruple-Lutz achievement as a result of it powerfully refuted stereotypes about male determine skaters and male athletes of Asian descent.
“There’s that stereotype the place individuals have a look at skaters they usually’re like, ‘Oh, they’re ballerinas in tutus,’ or stuff like that or, ‘all guys who do determine skating are homosexual,'” he stated. “I feel these are all fairly ignorant views.
“It is a good looking factor to have the athleticism to have the ability to do quadruples, that are primarily the restrict of what is bodily attainable in skating proper now, but in addition to have the ability to give a good looking efficiency and have nice traces on the ice and have an appreciation for artistry. It is only a sport. It is only a factor that all of us take pleasure in. I don’’ suppose there is a motive to make it about, ‘Guys need to be guys and women need to be women.'”
Zhou additionally gained the U.S. Determine Skating Championships at numerous ranges and claimed the gold medal on the 2017 World Junior Championships. In October of 2021, Zhou had one other spotlight second when he took the highest spot at Skate America, together with besting Nathan Chen, a famend skater who hadn’t misplaced in three years, in keeping with ESPN’s Elaine Teng.
“I feel he is the hardest-working male determine skater possibly on this planet,” one in all Zhou’s coaches, Tom Zakrajsek, informed Teng. “He is the hardest-working athlete in my 32 years teaching.”
Even with all that success, Zhou’s skating profession hit an deadlock at simply 12 years outdated. Zhou skated on a torn meniscus in his proper knee for 3 years, per Teng, however he lastly underwent surgical procedure wherein his total meniscus was eliminated because of vital harm.
The damage resulted in two misplaced seasons for Zhou and slowed his on-ice improvement, however he had already dedicated an excessive amount of and his love was too sturdy for the game to only stroll away.
Zhou started skating on the age of 5 and even moved when he was a toddler together with his mom, Ge, away from their residence in Palo Alto, Cailf., to get extra rigorous and elite coaching 400 miles away in southern California. They stayed at first in an condo with no electrical energy and no scorching water, per Teng. The transfer additionally cut up up Zhou’s household as his father and sister, Vivian, a stellar athlete herself as she was an All-American diver on the Massachusetts Institute of Know-how, stayed on the household’s residence.
Whereas Zhou, who’s candid about his battles with psychological well being, has confronted setbacks alongside his skating journey, he all the time has discovered a solution to push by means of and a comeback story like his is definitely one which’s simple to get behind.
