2019-20 U.S. Men's Figure Skating

hippomoomin said:

I have not been following men closely and just found out that Vincent Zhou withdrew both GP events because he needed more time for his midterm at Brown University. (per wikipedia). I had the wrong impression he did well in GP and was in the final!
So basically he has not shown his skating since summer. Anyone knows his recent training?

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ice coverage said:

Motivated by Novice Pewter Medal, Joe Klein Makes the Leap to Juniors

https://usfigureskatingfanzone.com/...edal-joe-klein-makes-the-leap-to-juniors.aspx (Jan 18)​

We knew that Damon Allen is one of Joe's coaches. Additional detail:

Spurred on by his podium finish at the U.S. Championships in 2019, Klein doubled down on his training during the 2019-20 season. He spent about seven weeks total training with a different team of coaches in Colorado Springs, Colorado, ...
​

BTW, I had no idea that Joe is a twin.

Lotsa luck to Joe at Nats. :yay: He will be in Practice Group C.

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el henry said:

Joe Klein is just too adorable, and definitely has the "it" factor. :thumbsup:

And, as Seven Sisters said, so good to see how he inspired by Jason:
"He has beautiful skating and he's a great skater, but also outside of skating, he's such a great person," Klein said. "He has such a positive aura around him, and I've never met a nicer guy."

And that he's also watched Riverdance "millions of times". Join the club, Joe, and good luck!

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Zenchio63 said:

Hi, other than Vincent’s recent announcement of his coaching change to Lee Barkell in Toronto
https://www.instagram.com/p/B61Ps2knmyl/?igshid=106043no0lkif
where he is training hard and preparing for US Nationals, we don’t know how much “catching up’ he has to do but knowing what a hard worker Vincent is, it’s certain he is training as much as he can to get back in form. He was able to come back strong last season, and regular fans expect the same from him this year.

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snowflake said:

NBC sports:

Vincent Zhou put Ivy League classes on hold to return to figure skating

He took two months off the ice and four months without proper training to complete that first semester. Then he took a break from classes (which will probably extend through the 2022 Olympics), moved to Toronto in late December and began working with a new coach.

Zhou’s problems began early in the semester. The ice time at Brown’s rink was all reserved for hockey. So he (with his mom’s help) drove two hours to Boston to train. That was unsustainable. In late October, he announced a withdrawal before the top-level autumn Grand Prix Series.

“I didn’t even know what was going to happen for the longest time,” Zhou said. “I was just living day to day unsure of what the future was. Maybe I dramatized that too much. It’s what I felt like. It was just a rough time for me.”

Nathan:
“I’ve never considered dropping [classes] or withdrawing [from events],” Chen said. “However, I have prepared myself to have pretty rough results at various competitions. I’m really swamped. I have this opportunity. I don’t want to give it up, but I’ll try to do the very best that I can. Fortunately, things have panned out for me as it’s been so far. That being said, it’s not a little walk in the park. There’s a lot of things you have to consider. There’s a lot of timing you have to consider. The classes are getting more and more difficult. They’re asking more and more of your time to study.”

Three U.S. men will be sent to worlds in March. Chen has one spot. Jason Brown, the 2015 U.S. champion ranked 11th in the world this year, is another podium favorite. Zhou is the only other man in this week’s field who has finished in the top three of a nationals or a Grand Prix.

“It’s going to be nerve-racking,” he said. “I’m going to literally be shaking in my boots.”

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Skater Boy said:

I was wondering if he is goign to school in the States ; how can he train in Canada - though I do believe he took this semester off so I guess with Christmas break maybe he has had at most 5 or 6 weeks to solidly train?

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el henry said:

I believe Vincent plans to take a leave of absence from Brown, starting this semester, until the 2022 Olympics. So he can train in Canada to his heart's content

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el henry said:

I believe Vincent plans to take a leave of absence from Brown, starting this semester, until the 2022 Olympics. So he can train in Canada to his heart's content

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snowflake said:

NBC sports:

Vincent Zhou put Ivy League classes on hold to return to figure skating

He took two months off the ice and four months without proper training to complete that first semester. Then he took a break from classes (which will probably extend through the 2022 Olympics), moved to Toronto in late December and began working with a new coach.

Zhou’s problems began early in the semester. The ice time at Brown’s rink was all reserved for hockey. So he (with his mom’s help) drove two hours to Boston to train. That was unsustainable. In late October, he announced a withdrawal before the top-level autumn Grand Prix Series.

“I didn’t even know what was going to happen for the longest time,” Zhou said. “I was just living day to day unsure of what the future was. Maybe I dramatized that too much. It’s what I felt like. It was just a rough time for me.”

Nathan:
“I’ve never considered dropping [classes] or withdrawing [from events],” Chen said. “However, I have prepared myself to have pretty rough results at various competitions. I’m really swamped. I have this opportunity. I don’t want to give it up, but I’ll try to do the very best that I can. Fortunately, things have panned out for me as it’s been so far. That being said, it’s not a little walk in the park. There’s a lot of things you have to consider. There’s a lot of timing you have to consider. The classes are getting more and more difficult. They’re asking more and more of your time to study.”

Three U.S. men will be sent to worlds in March. Chen has one spot. Jason Brown, the 2015 U.S. champion ranked 11th in the world this year, is another podium favorite. Zhou is the only other man in this week’s field who has finished in the top three of a nationals or a Grand Prix.

“It’s going to be nerve-racking,” he said. “I’m going to literally be shaking in my boots.”

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Tavi... said:

At this point there are at least 6 guys not named Nathan competing for the two open spots for Worlds: Vincent, Jason, Camden, Alexei, Tomoki, and Andrew. All of them are unknown quantities at this point.

Rather than writing off Vincent because he’s just gotten back to training, or “pulling the plug” on Jason because he hasn’t yet landed a quad, why don’t we just wait and see how everyone does at Nats. The truth is, nobody in this group has had a particularly stellar season so far.

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Skater Boy said:

I really love Brown's skating but I do think he needs a quad - his triple axel isn't always that reliable. I can't believe I am saying this but while I do believe he could still get the quad I almost feel Jason you have used a lot of air up; it is almost time to pull the plug. I know horrible. But that quad has been talked about for a long time.

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CanadianSkaterGuy said:

LOL I was confused for a moment, and thought you meant Jason.

Guess he'll still have Brown to deal with at Nationals.

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