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Brown Daily Herald article (Sept. 23, 2024):
www.browndailyherald.com
Excerpts:
Vincent Zhou ’25.5 finally got his gold medal. What’s next?
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The tumultuous aftermath follows his own bittersweet experience at the Olympics. Shortly before the men’s singles event, Zhou tested positive for COVID-19 and had to withdraw from competition.
It felt symbolic, then, when Team U.S.A. asked Zhou to lead the group onstage for the medal ceremony.
“I was like, whoa. This is really scary. What if I walk the wrong way?” Zhou joked. He had anticipated that someone else — one of the ice dancers or men’s singles gold medalist Nathan Chen — would be leading the procession instead.
But he “owned the role” nonetheless, walking out to a cheering crowd with the Eiffel Tower in the landscape. “It was very emotional for everyone,” Zhou said.
Zhou is enthusiastic about skating shows, but has largely ruled out a competitive comeback. He is focusing on fulfilling requirements for his economics concentration this year, and hopes to make time for creative endeavors — like his poetry Instagram account — amid all the work.
He talks about his future with excitement, but can’t help if some trepidation seeps through.
“I’ve got less than one and a half years in school now, (and) then I’m going to be in the workforce. That’s crazy,” said Zhou. “People that I grew up skating with… they’re getting engaged, getting married, they’re having kids.”
Though he was grateful to reunite with his figure skating family in Paris, he noted the “mutual understanding that … we’re no longer the same people that we were two years ago.”
“I’m almost afraid nothing will ever capture the magic and the essence of our shared experience in the 2022 season,” Zhou said. “Life comes at you so fast … I don’t think people ever feel prepared for that sort of change.”
Amid all the uncertainty, Zhou appears most sure of himself when discussing his long-term dream: founding and running a skating school.
He explains that he wants to open a skating school to “address all the pain points and issues” he’s struggled with throughout his career, including finding a good physical therapist to trust, identifying good and bad technique and navigating the financial struggles of not being able to afford skating. Zhou has also been open about his mental health struggles in the past, and hopes to wield his experiences as a tool for positive change.
“I want to be able to help (skaters) remove (barriers) and help them focus on … becoming the best athlete and student and scholar that they can,” he continued.
