Nathan Chen competes in the men's short program at the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 on Feb. 16, 2018 in Gangneung, South Korea.
Vincent Zhou won the figure skating world junior championship in 2017 and would love to do the same in his senior debut one year and a handful of days later.
Standing in his way, however, is U.S. Olympic teammate Nathan Chen, who took over the top spot in the standings and sits in the lead with a score of 101.94 after the men’s short program at the world championships in Milan on Thursday.
Zhou, the youngest member of Team USA at the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018, is currently in third place with a score of 96.78. Russia’s Mikhail Kolyada scored 100.08 and is in second heading into Saturday’s free skate.
Chen is on his way to redemption after placing 17th in the short program in PyeongChang last month after entering as the gold-medal favorite. With the highest free skate score the next day, he finished in fifth. He also entered last year’s event – his first senior world championships – as a medal favorite but came up short with some mistakes and was sixth.
Zhou scored a new season’s best in his short program. In third, it’s still a good place to be for the skater who jumped from 12th to sixth place in PyeongChang after a free skate that included five quads.
Max Aaron, the 2013 U.S. champion, scored a 79.78 in his short program. He is in 15th.
Karen Price is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has covered Olympic sports for various publications. She is a freelance contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.
