Vincent Zhou, the U.S. figure skating hopeful who missed the end of the team competition at the Beijing Olympics after testing positive for the coronavirus, said on Monday night that he would not compete in the men’s singles competition that begins Tuesday.
In an emotional video filmed in his hotel room and posted to his Instagram account, Zhou, 21, said he had withdrawn from the event. Because of the Olympics’ strict virus protocols, he also will not be allowed to join his teammates when they accept their silver medals on Tuesday.
In the video, Zhou fought back tears as he addressed comments “to the future Vincent watching this” in which he professed pride in his accomplishments and in his long path to Beijing and declared his continued love for skating and the people and teammates who had supported him.
“It seems pretty unreal that of all the people it would happen to myself,” he said. “And that’s not just because I’m still processing this turn of events, but also because I have been doing everything in my power to stay free of Covid since the start of the pandemic. I’ve taken all the precautions I can. I’ve isolated myself so much that the loneliness that I felt in the last month or two has been crushing at times.”
He added, “I am more than just another positive Covid test.”
Zhou said he had lost count of the number of times he had cried on Monday. One of those moments, he said, was “happy tears” when he learned he had become a silver medalist.
An alternate will not be able to take his place in the men’s singles event because Zhou had already competed on Olympic ice, the skating federation said.
