Vincent Zhou Withdraws from 2019 Grand Prix Series

el henry · Oct 23, 2019

truthbooth said:
I'm sure Yale would make an exception for someone of Nathan's caliber.

Yale is filled with students “of Nathan’s caliber”. We are figure skating fans and World Championships are near and dear to our heart.

That may not be a universal.

That said, I think they will work with him once he gets two full years in; at the halfway point, universities don’t like to give up on you. Even Yale.

oatmella · Oct 23, 2019

I think Vincent should be okay missing the GP series, he will hopefully still be at Nationals and likely at Worlds. Maybe this will also be a good opportunity to give his body some rest and recovery.

The ‘copying Nathan’ thing is silly. It’s not a surprise that he’s attending a prestigious university (that happens to also be an Ivy League school).

shine · Oct 23, 2019

el henry said:
Yale is filled with students “of Nathan’s caliber”. We are figure skating fans and World Championships are near and dear to our heart. That may not be a universal.

That said, I think they will work with him once he gets two full years in; at the halfway point, universities don’t like to give up on you. Even Yale.

Can I ask why you often feel the need to underplay Nathan’s accomplishments? I have seen so many of these “but Yale is full of accomplished people i.e. Nathan is really not that special there” posts from you. I think we are all aware that Yale and the rest of the world is full of equally or more accomplished people, so is it necessary to remind everyone that Nathan is not that extraordinary compared to them, time and time again?

moonvine · Oct 23, 2019

le01 said:
Even though I have 2 uni degrees I’m not familiar with US education system, why is there such a rush to start studying at younger age not wait till mid twenties?

I have no idea. I think people should do what they want of course. But if I had been blessed with the talent these skaters have, college could wait until I was done skating. I don’t think a person can have the full experience of either while trying to do both. There are so many opportunities outside the classroom other than just attending classes.

I have a friend who got a PhD in gerontology in her 70s. One can't skate in GP events in their 70s. Although I have read it is only for one semester to preserve his acceptance, which I guess makes sense

Does the US get to replace him?

crazydreamer · Oct 23, 2019

I'm not sure of the logic of prioritizing college over skating if you really want to make a serious go at skating medals. In the U.S., breaks after college are treated more skeptically than breaks before college. The main point of most ivy league schools, beyond networking and intellectual development, is as a direct funnel to post-grad employment. If you take a break after graduation, you are off track and a lot of big companies don't know what to do with you (although it depends on the major, of course). If you win an Olympic medal after college that probably resolves the issue, because that's a remarkable stat, but it's also harder to win olympic medals in your mid-20s.

That said, it's entirely possible that Vincent's ultimate goal may be to go to law school or medical school. In that case, this decision would make sense. You have to have great grades in college to go to either, and it is generally fine to pursue a non-traditional career or hobby in between college and law/medical school. Also, it is daunting to think that after finishing your skating career at 25 or whatever, you still have both college and three years of law school (or a decade of medical school and training) before you start making money.

Skater Boy · Oct 23, 2019

I admit thisi s a bit off a surprise and we see other skaters balalncing school and skating - I couldn't so good for them Look at Nathan hhe is doing amazingly well adjusting to school and skating. Skating without his coach beside him a lot of time is pretty amazing. It helps if your profs and school faciliities are helpful. I hope vincent can still get the training in he needs.

Roast Toast · Oct 23, 2019

It helps that Nathan can pick his GPs to accommodate his schedule. If Vincent is saddled with an assignment in the middle of midterms, all the ingenuity and hard work in the world won't help.

andromache · Oct 23, 2019

I am relieved he is not injured.

If I was USFS, however, I would be kinda ticked off. Vincent is an Envelope A (or whatever, the top $$$ from USFS) skater, and I assume he would've had a great shot at making GPF.

I think Vincent saw what Nathan was capable of and thought he could do it too, but it turns out he bit off more than he could chew. Prioritizing school over skating isn't a bad thing - especially if he is receiving scholarship funding or something that is dependent on his grades. And skaters in general are pretty sheltered, so I think going away to college and getting the real experience is super beneficial to him as a person.

I'm glad other skaters will get the chance to compete in the GP spots that Vincent is vacating.

alexaa · Oct 23, 2019

Roast Toast said:
It helps that Nathan can pick his GPs to accommodate his schedule. If Vincent is saddled with an assignment in the middle of midterms, all the ingenuity and hard work in the world won't help.

From Vincent’s IG, his mid term is right now, so he has to spend more time on study and not on critical training for GP. From his IG

and after all, I must put academics ahead of everything else. With midterms going on right now, I have not been able to put in the necessary time and energy into training and preparing to compete.

IdF happened on the Friday of Nathan’s mid term week. He stated in an interview this year’s GP schedule is not accommodating, plus the class are lot harder.

According to Nathan, the first semester last year was very stressing for him because his assignments are in the middle of exams, the second semester was better. His mom was also not with him.

crazydreamer said:
I'm not sure of the logic of prioritizing college over skating if you really want to make a serious go at skating medals. In the U.S., breaks after college are treated more skeptically than breaks before college. The main point of most ivy league schools, beyond networking and intellectual development, is as a direct funnel to post-grad employment.

Unlike Karen and Nathan, Vincent is only going to school for one semester so he can keep his offer from Brown. He is going to focus on skating after this semester is over, and come back to school after the Olympics.

So it kinda makes sense in his case.

chuckm · Oct 23, 2019

Vincent was given two events back-to-back, which would have kept him out of school for two weeks in a row plus travel time---about 16 days total, with huge jet lag at the end. No wonder he withdrew.

theharleyquinn · Oct 23, 2019

Roast Toast said:
It helps that Nathan can pick his GPs to accommodate his schedule. If Vincent is saddled with an assignment in the middle of midterms, all the ingenuity and hard work in the world won't help.

Nathan wanted NHK for his schedule and didn't get it because the federation wanted Yuzu there, so he doesn't have the most accommodating schedule.

From the beginning of the talk about Vincent going to Brown (and about Karen going to Cornell, but less so) I think there's been too much comparison to Nathan, some of which was self-imposed in that interview Vincent did with Jack Gallagher. Just because going to school while skating is working for Nathan (from what we know publicly), doesn't mean it works for everyone. Honestly, it seemed like a bad idea from the start, especially when Vincent has a fragmented coaching situation. He had a lot of time before this point to withdraw and he would've known when his midterms were at the beginning of the semester.

1111bm · Oct 23, 2019

le01 said:
Even though I have 2 uni degrees I’m not familiar with US education system, why is there such a rush to start studying at younger age not wait till mid twenties?

I have been asking myself the exact same thing, since where I live, it has become very common for many people to start their higher education at a later point in life. And I've actually always enjoyed that mixed age range, gives you a lot more perspective on life and adds people with even more diverse backgrounds and experiences than hanging out with your peers only.

But your question doesn't actually apply to Vincent, since he never actually intended to get that education right now (save for that one semester of course, which is simply a necessity, although of course an experience and diversion from 'just skating' too). He was only gonna do one semester from the get-go, to reserve a spot at Brown in the future, and in fact plans to start college properly after next Olys (at least that's how I understood it).

Something else just occurred to me. Imagine one of these young people gets injured in a way that forces them to quit skating, or in a less horrible scenario, forces them to sit out a whole season or more. All this after they've put their whole life (including education) on hold for their skating career. When you already have that spot at a college, that foot in the door, I imagine it's much easier to then continue on with your education and make use of that sudden free time, than if you had to go and apply to get into a college first. And even more so in the former case, I guess it's comforting to know that you did not 'waste' precious years on skating only and you always had this other life too, when it ultimately didn't lead to the desired results because your skating career got cut short.

1111bm · Oct 23, 2019

Roast Toast said:
It helps that Nathan can pick his GPs to accommodate his schedule. If Vincent is saddled with an assignment in the middle of midterms, all the ingenuity and hard work in the world won't help.

I would assume Vincent checked both his exam and competition schedule in the beginning of the semester, so I doubt there's an actual overlap with both happening in the exact same week or days, since attending both would be simply impossible and they would have taken action sooner.
Underestimating the time he would need to put into both studying and skating respectively to prepare for each in advance sounds more like the culprit here.

And yeah, I remember Nathan always having exams right before or immediately after most of his GP competitions/final last year, so let's just say the GP series is not very compatible with college midterms or finals schedules in general, no matter which assignments you get. What Nathan actually benefitted from was, that most of his comps took place during school breaks, so he didn't miss as many classes. But I believe that's different this year for at least one of his competitions, so it's a less ideal situation this time around.

drivingmissdaisy · Oct 23, 2019

bonita said:
Unlike Karen and Nathan, Vincent is only going to school for one semester so he can keep his offer from Brown. He is going to focus on skating after this semester is over, and come back to school after the Olympics.

So it kinda makes sense in his case.

That's kind of odd. Given his athletic accomplishments, and that his academic background was strong enough to get in to Brown, I'm sure he could have just enrolled later. I can't imagine it would get that much harder to be admitted in a couple of years.

gmcg · Oct 23, 2019

drivingmissdaisy said:
That's kind of odd. Given his athletic accomplishments, and that his academic background was strong enough to get in to Brown, I'm sure he could have just enrolled later. I can't imagine it would get that much harder to be admitted in a couple of years.

I believe he'd stated that his SAT scores would no longer be valid and he would have had to take them again if he'd deferred entry, so he wanted to enroll now and get the first semester done, at least.

Jammers · Oct 23, 2019

Skater Boy said:
I admit thisi s a bit off a surprise and we see other skaters balalncing school and skating - I couldn't so good for them Look at Nathan hhe is doing amazingly well adjusting to school and skating. Skating without his coach beside him a lot of time is pretty amazing. It helps if your profs and school faciliities are helpful. I hope vincent can still get the training in he needs.

Nathan is a special case to be honest. To do what he's done basically without a coach of any kind and to be undefeated for over a full season while studying at one of the most prestigious schools in the world is something special but then he is too. Not many Nathan Chen's come along in a lifetime.

theharleyquinn · Oct 23, 2019

el henry said:
Yale is filled with students “of Nathan’s caliber”. We are figure skating fans and World Championships are near and dear to our heart. That may not be a universal.

That said, I think they will work with him once he gets two full years in; at the halfway point, universities don’t like to give up on you. Even Yale.

It is not typical to be the type of successful athlete that Nathan is. It is more correct to say that Nathan is not the only athlete at Yale that will compete for Summer/Winter Olympics while he's there, but that is still a small, special group of people with which the school is used to making arrangements. They have almost certainly worked out the plan with him before he enrolled.

el henry · Oct 23, 2019

shine said:
Can I ask why you often feel the need to underplay Nathan’s accomplishments? I have seen so many of these “but Yale is full of accomplished people i.e. Nathan is really not that special there” posts from you. I think we are all aware that Yale and the rest of the world is full of equally or more accomplished people, so is it necessary to remind everyone that Nathan is not that extraordinary compared to them, time and time again?

I do not think that is what my post said and I do not think it should be taken in that vein. :scratch:

I don’t understand how it is downplaying Nathan to say that Yale is filled with students of high accomplishments, such as students who have won Academy Awards and who have done amazing things? Nathan is highly accomplished, has won World Championships and has done amazing things.

He fits right in, and I think that’s wonderful:agree:

I will also say that I think college has done for Nathan what it is supposed to do, at least as is reflected in his skating. He is so much more open and relaxed in his skating and I am here for it. As far as I’m concerned, the best thing he could do is stay at college, if this is responsible for his skating. Bravo :clap:

alexaa · Oct 23, 2019

drivingmissdaisy said:
That's kind of odd. Given his athletic accomplishments, and that his academic background was strong enough to get in to Brown, I'm sure he could have just enrolled later. I can't imagine it would get that much harder to be admitted in a couple of years.

He could defer enrollment at most for a year, beyond that he has to reapply. Once he enrolled, after the first semester is over, he could take leave and come back in 2.5 years.

It is a short term thing, and his mom is in Providence helping out. He lives in dorm though, as Karen and Nathan does. He has coaches visited him in September, but I guess both Tammy and Hamada are busy with other students, and would not have time to visit him since mid September.

I don’t quite get it myself, but that is what I from his interviews, articles about him.

QueenOfTheRoad · Oct 23, 2019

I think it is very smart of him to put his education ahead of the skating career. Very few can now live a whole life on the back of the figure skating, the situation in USA is not very rosa for skaters after ending the competitive career. Also, there are no guarantee that he will stay till next oly injury free or that he will get a medal there. Better to think now than latter.
He got the chance to get a very good education, chance not everyone gets in their life.

I find incredible unfair to compare his education situation and the decisions he takes with Nathan's. It is like those moms comparing ad nauseum the result of a kid with the other: "why didn't you get an A like the other kid? If he can, you can do as well, blah,blah,blah" (if he has lost 30 kg why don't you as well?, if he bought a villa in LA, why can you not?"... you know, that kind of annoying hurtful questions).

People have different strengths, different energy, different schedules and study requirements. Different desires and plans in their life. Different needs. Different family situations.

Vincent Zhou Withdraws from 2019 Grand Prix Series

el henry

Go have some cake. And come back with jollity.

oatmella

陈巍

shine

moonvine

All Hail Queen Gracie

crazydreamer

Skater Boy

Roast Toast

andromache

alexaa

chuckm

theharleyquinn

1111bm

1111bm

drivingmissdaisy

gmcg

Jammers

theharleyquinn

el henry

Go have some cake. And come back with jollity.

alexaa

QueenOfTheRoad

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Vincent Zhou Withdraws from 2019 Grand Prix Series

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