--- title: What to Know About Vincent Zhou, 2018 Olympics Skating Star description: Here's everything you should know about 2018 Winter Olympics skater, Vincent Zhou, the first man to land a quadruple lutz in the games. canonical: https://time.com/5162679/what-to-know-vincent-zhou-skater-quad-lutz-olympics-2018/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-02-16T17:37:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-12T08:58:56.550Z og:title: 5 Things You Should Know About US Skating Star Vincent Zhou og:description: #3 will you surprise you og:url: https://time.com/5162679/what-to-know-vincent-zhou-skater-quad-lutz-olympics-2018/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt72428781c319b8ca/698927f9656a3fdfc1bd392a/vincent-zhou-quad-lutz-skater-what-to-know-olympics-2018.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: Figure Skating - Winter Olympics Day 7 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 5 Things You Should Know About US Skating Star Vincent Zhou twitter:description: #3 will you surprise you twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt72428781c319b8ca/698927f9656a3fdfc1bd392a/vincent-zhou-quad-lutz-skater-what-to-know-olympics-2018.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 5 Things You Should Know About Olympic Skating Star Vincent Zhou > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=d45b2dc8-4a32-48a7-892c-f15af8707538&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Meet Team USA: Vincent Zhou [Watch (HLS stream): Meet Team USA: Vincent Zhou](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/TqWvn73N.m3u8) (1:28)  _Published 2018-02-16. First-time American Olympian Vincent Zhou became the first figure skater to land a quad lutz in any Olympic Games when he nailed the jump at the opening of his short program._  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Feb 16, 2018 5:37 PM UTC  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Feb 16, 2018 5:37 PM UTC All eyes were on [Vincent Zhou](http://time.com/5155831/vincent-zhou-twitter-feud/) on Thursday when the 17-year-old figure skater from [Team USA](http://time.com/5138220/team-usa-2018-winter-olympic-medals/) made history at the [2018 Winter Olympics](http://time.com/5160330/winter-olympics-athletes-politics/) in [PyeongChang, South Korea](http://time.com/5160147/pyeongchang-olympics-wind-injuries/) by becoming [the first person to ever land a quadruple lutz](http://time.com/5161971/vincent-zhou-makes-history-quad-lutz-winter-olympics/) during his short program at the Olympics. This is the first Olympic games for the skater, who is the youngest member of Team USA at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics this year. And while Zhou is fairly young, he’s accomplished a lot in his 17 years so far — here’s what you should know about this bona fide skating star. **He’s the son of Chinese immigrants**: According to the [_Chicago Tribune_](http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/international/ct-spt-vincent-zhou-figure-skating-olympics-20180216-story.html), Vincent’s parents moved from Beijing to California in the early 1990s to attend graduate school. His father is a computer scientist with Google, while his mother worked for Oracle before quitting her Silicon Valley job to help Vincent achieve his goals of becoming a figure skater. As he revealed in an interview with [_NBC_](http://www.nbcolympics.com/news/who-vincent-zhou), Vincent is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and attended Chinese school every week until he was 12. **He’s basically a genius**: In an interview with [_Cosmopolitan_](http://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/celebs/a13797006/vincent-zhou-figureskating-olympics/), Vincent said that he’s always been ahead of the curve when it comes to education. “Throughout my childhood, \[my parents\] educated me beyond the regular U.S. education system; in 2nd grade I was learning from 6th grade Singaporean math textbooks,” he said. “The way that Asian-Americans are brought up, we often go to very competitive high schools and end up in Ivy League colleges… if we can’t do that, we’re disowned,” he joked. Vincent’s studies paid off — not only did he skip a few grades as a “gifted and talented student” while at the Capistrano Connections Academy, he even graduated ahead of his age group at the tender age of 16. **He got his start on the ice at the age of 3**: While he didn’t begin formal training in figure skating until he was a little older, Vincent went ice skating for the first time when he was 3 years old. In an interview with _US Figure Skating_, Vincent shared that his father took him to a local ice rink and encouraged him to get over his fear of being on the ice by holding his hand as they skated. **He could have a side hustle as a comedian**: In an interview with _US Figure Skating_, Vincent revealed that he would tell a knock-knock joke every time he was on the ice as a young skater. He also said that he loves “a good, high-quality meme” and said that the funniest people he knows are ice dancers Charlie White and Ben Agosto. **He’s got well-rounded interests outside of the world of figure skating**: Vincent shared with _Cosmopolitan_ that he enjoys writing poetry in his spare time, noting that “it’s a good way to vent or express some stress or whatever I’m feeling.” When Vincent isn’t training or writing poetry, you can also find him on a hike; because he trains for part of the year in Colorado, he’s been taking advantage of their many hiking trails. Vincent also [shared with _NBC_ ](http://www.nbcolympics.com/news/qa-vincent-zhou-olympic-figure-skating)that his dream “would be to do a difficult hike in Rocky Mountain National Park.” ## Transcript I'm Vincent Cho. I'm a figure skater and my hometown is Palo Alto, California. [ MUSIC ] The book that I write for myself this year, the figurative book I write for myself this year, is going to be full of lots of not necessarily This success in the form that I always wanted it to be. There's always gonna be hardships and struggles. But in the end, it's all gonna be worth it. [ MUSIC ] After I wake up, I visualize a little. I roll out, loosen up my muscles. [ INAUDIBLE ] is a big part of every athlete's life, I mean I had surgery when I was 12 years old, from skating related injuries, so I'm going to communicate effectively and take necessary action in order to mitigate anything that's hurting. [ MUSIC ] I don't watch TV but I do enjoy reading Writing poetry, hiking and listening to music, sleeping. I'm so close to achieving my dreams it's, every feels. I'm real. 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