American men’s figure skater Vincent Zhou tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday, leaving in jeopardy his status for the individual competition, which begins Tuesday morning in Beijing (Monday night in the United States).
Zhou tested positive after his daily screening on Sunday, the same day he performed a free skate routine to help the United States win a silver medal in the team competition.
Zhou is undergoing additional testing in the hopes of posting a negative result.
“If the results are negative, Zhou will be able to compete in the men’s short program,” US Skating said in a statement.
The 21-year-old Brown University student is in his second Olympics. While he was not considered a medal favorite in the individual competition, he is a popular and talented competitor who certainly could have risen to the occasion.
Zhou, of Palo Alto, California, was not present at the medal ceremony for the team competition. As such, he was unable to receive his silver medal, which would be his first, and potentially, only Olympic medal of his career.
Under Olympic protocols, Zhou would have been taken immediately to one of the infamous “isolation centers” that have yielded intense complaints from athletes and officials for the substandard food, small, dirty rooms and lack of internet access.
The IOC and the Beijing Organizing Committee have vowed to fix the problems, but there is no telling what Zhou is dealing with, which could impact him physically and mentally if he does get out in time to skate.
Also of issue is the Olympics close contract tracing and whether Zhou, if he is indeed positive, could have spread the virus to any of his teammates. Zhou was around nearly the entire United States skating team — men, women, pairs and ice dance, at the competition Sunday. There are other interactions in the Olympic Village, training and dining.
That could include Nathan Chen, the three-time world champion who is favored to win the individual gold medal here. His closest competition are two Russians.
Zhou said Sunday that he was looking forward to the individual competition and saw his performance in the team competition, where he was good, but not great, as an opportunity to get some nerves and rust out of his system.
“There were obviously some things I can improve on,” he said. “But it’s a good way for me to get ‘in my knees’ a little before the individual event starts [on Tuesday.]”
Now his Olympic future rests on further testing with limited time to sort things out as all of U.S. Skating holds its breath that a bad story doesn’t become an even worse.
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Positive COVID-19 test puts U.S. figure skater Vincent Zhou's Olympic hopes in danger - Yahoo Sports
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