Figure skating: American Vincent Zhou tests positive for COVID-19

BEIJING: American figure skater Vincent Zhou has tested positive for COVID-19 in athletes' daily screening at the Beijing Olympics, US Figure Skating said on Monday (Feb 7).

"As part of yesterday's regular COVID-19 screening, Vincent Zhou tested positive," it said in an emailed statement, adding he was undergoing additional testing and will be able to compete in the men's short programme on Tuesday should he test negative.

California native Zhou, 21, competed in the team event on Sunday and teammate Karen Chen said she found out about his positive test result after performing her free skate on Monday. The United States won a silver medal in the team event.

"It's definitely very unfortunate news," Chen said. "I train with him all the time, and I know he deserves to be here, to be in this moment with all of us. Definitely disappointed about that, but I hope that we can invite him back here very soon."

Chen added she was taking precautions to combat the possibility of contracting COVID-19 in the Olympic Village, with dozens of athletes having tested positive on arrival in Beijing since Jan 23.

"It's definitely something that I think about every now and then, but it's in a way out of my control," Chen said.

"I can only do what I can control, whether it's double masking, sanitising my hands all the time, wearing gloves, not touching my face. So those are things that I can control, so I've just been focusing on that."

Zhou finished sixth at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games and beat the triple world champion, Nathan Chen, for the gold medal at the Skate America Grand Prix in October.

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