Vincent Zhou Dazzles for First Grand Prix Gold Medal at 2021 Guaranteed Rate Skate America

On the second day of competition at 2021 Guaranteed Rate Skate America at The Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, the first medals were awarded to men and pairs, while ice dance and women got underway.
 
Vincent Zhou won his first Grand Prix gold medal while Nathan Chen took bronze, and Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier led the way for U.S. pairs in fourth place.
 
After the rhythm dance, Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue hold the top spot with Madison Chock and Evan Bates right behind them in second place, while Amber Glenn leads the U.S. women after the short program in seventh place.
 
MEN
 
An American man reigned supreme at Skate America® once again, but for the first time, that man is named Vincent Zhou.
 
Zhou earned 198.13 points for his free skate to music from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon by Tan Dun; "Rising Sun" by Kiyoshi Yoshida, giving him 295.56 points overall.
 
"I don't think it's sank in yet," Zhou said with a laugh. "I didn't really expect this result, but what I did expect of myself was to be as well-prepared and well-trained as I possibly could, and I think just focusing on that every single day at home led to making the seemingly impossible become possible."
 
Japan's Shoma Uno took silver with 270.68 points, while four-time Skate America® champion Chen earned bronze with 269.37 points.
 
Despite Zhou's numerous accomplishments -- he is a 2018 Olympian, won bronze at the 2019 World Championships and Four Continents Championships, and is a three-time U.S. silver medalist -- this is just the second Grand Prix medal of his career. He previously won silver at Skate America® in 2020.
 
"I would say that my training this year has been by far the most consistent and productive training that I've ever had," Zhou said. "Just being well-prepared and training to perform under whatever circumstance is really paying off."
 
Zhou is undefeated so far this season, including a win at the Nebelhorn Trophy, which secured the U.S. men a third berth at the 2022 Olympic Winter Games. After sitting out most of the 2019-20 season and then a 2020-21 season derailed by the pandemic, he's finally getting things back on track.
 
"I am competing in an era of just absolutely incredible men's skating, and for the last few years, I guess I have been not as good as the top guys," Zhou said. "I think that definitely there is potential to break out a little this season."
 
Chen, in third place, earned 186.48 points for his free skate to a Mozart medley.
 
After finishing a disappointing fourth in the short program, Chen's free skate was second only to Zhou's after he doubled two planned quadruple jumps. He attempted six in total.
 
"Tried and accomplished are very different things," Chen joked. "I was in a tough spot already, so I was like, 'Why not get some experience putting them out?' That was kind of my thought process behind all that. The more you put out, the more risky it gets."
 
Chen had not finished lower than first at any competition since the 2018 Olympic Games, and at any Grand Prix since 2016.
 
"It was inevitably going to end, as with any streak, at some point in time," Chen said. "I'm really proud of these guys up here, and if anyone was to break my streak, I'm glad it's him (Zhou). All that being said, it's just something that happened. I'm proud of what I've accomplished in the past, but at this point in time, the only thing I can do is move forward."
 
Jimmy Ma placed fifth after scoring 143.60 points for his free skate to music from Attack on Titan by Hiroyuki Sawano, totaling 228.12 points overall.
 
This is the best Grand Prix finish of his career, having placed 12th and 10th at two prior Skate America® appearances.
 
"I lost a lot of steam," Ma said. "I really felt that. It's been awhile since I've been at an event like this. A lot of energy was to stay focused. So now it's the talk of mental strength, and mental stability, and how to stay focused without really using so much energy and focus."

PAIRS
 
Following their free skate practice earlier on Saturday, U.S. champions Knierim and Frazier went for a walk.
 
They'd finished fifth in the short program, and Frazier was still kicking himself for making an error.
 
"We were actually talking about the short program after the free program practice," Knierim said. "To see somebody you respect and care for hurting in their eyes, you'll do whatever it takes just to give them some light. I didn't even care if we skated today when I saw him just a little down. That walk was just to kind of get our minds in the right place."
 
And it worked.
 
Knierim and Frazier earned 136.60 points for their free skate to "Fix You" by Fearless Soul and Coldplay, and "Redemption Through Love" by Karl Hugo, and placed fourth overall with 202.97 points.
 
They finished second in the free skate and were a mere 2.56 points off the podium.
 
Russia's Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov took first place with 222.50 points. Japan's Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara placed second with 208.20 points, and Russia's Aleksandra Boikova and Dmitrii Kozlovskii rounded out the podium in third with 205.53 points.
 
"We can do so much better," Knierim said. "That program was just the beginning of what we're capable of. That program was like scratching the surface compared to what we do without any adrenaline and nerves at home. At home, we actually skate stronger, faster, cleaner. But it was great to get the job done today and check off each element."
 
Frazier says that it was being too much in his head during the short program that ultimately caused his error. During the free skate, he was simply doing, and he credits Knierim and their strong partnership with getting him back on track.
 
"If I see she's got something in her head, it's something I'd like to talk about, and we trust each other to talk and put it on the table," Frazier said. "It makes us stronger and is why I think we will go far in the long run, because we really work well together with that stuff."
 
Two-time reigning U.S. silver medalists Jessica Calalang and Brian Johnson finished fifth overall, earning 128.55 points for their free skate to "Who Wants to Live Forever" by the Tenors featuring Lindsey Stirling and a total of 197.42 points.
 
"I know it wasn't really the program we wanted to skate, but knowing that we can achieve that high score with two big errors really says something about the work that we've been putting in the past year," Calalang said. "With the two mistakes at the beginning, we just put it aside, because it's done and over, and we have the rest of the program, we know what we're capable of and we wanted to achieve those high GOEs."
 
Chelsea Liu and Danny O'Shea finished seventh overall in their Grand Prix debut with 175.40 points, earning 115.24 points for their free skate to "Becoming Human" by Ryan Taubert from Score: A Film Music Documentary.
 
"I personally feel like we put out good programs that we're satisfied with, performance-wise," Liu said. "That's been our main focus the last couple of months. As a new team, you get so focused on the elements that you kind of forget to work on the transitions in between, and I feel like, for being as new as we are, we've done a good job on presenting and showing our connection to each other."

ICE DANCE
 
If you haven't already gotten familiar with the sight of Hubbell and Donohue in first place at Skate America®, it's about time you do.
 
Reigning and three-time U.S. champions scored 83.58 points for their skate to a Janet Jackson medley and hold the top spot after the rhythm dance in Las Vegas.
 
The duo looks to take their fourth consecutive Skate America® title.
 
"We left the ice with no regrets, because we just went for it, and it was really exciting to feel the reaction and see people stand up at the end," Hubbell said. "We're hoping that with those extra technical points, we can get closer up towards 90. But today it was enough, and a learning experience, and we're going to take all the feedback we can possibly get from the panel and use that to be stronger against our competitors next time."
 
Chock and Bates sit in second place, having earned 82.55 points for their rhythm dance to "My Boy," "Therefore I Am" and "Bad Guy" by Billie Eilish. Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Nikolaj Sorensen of Canada are in third with 75.33 points.
 
Fresh off a silver-medal finish at the 2021 ISU World Figure Skating Championships, Hubbell and Donohue hope to ultimately better that at the Olympics at the end of this season.
 
Everything from now until then, they say, is a stepping stone.
 
"Looking at our whole season, we tried to look at what would be important to us at the end of the year, when we retire, and what, if we look back, would we regret," Hubbell said. "And since that most important event is at the end of the season, playing it safe here and putting too much pressure on this Skate America® title didn't really make sense to us. We wanted to give full-out performances, not hold back, see where the weak links in the program were, and gain experience so that, when it is time, at the end of the year, to give the very best of us, we're prepared for that. So we're very proud of what we did today. We went for it."
 
Meanwhile, this is Chock and Bates's first Grand Prix in nearly two years as they withdrew from Skate America® last season due to injury.
 
They finished fourth at the 2021 World Championships.
 
"The crowd, you could really feel their energy," Chock said. "We had a wonderful time performing for each other, but also for the crowd because they were so receptive to what we were giving to them, and it was great to hear the response. And when they clap along to your music, it's just the best feeling."
 
Molly Cesanek and Yehor Yehorov hold ninth place with 61.07 points after their rhythm dance to "Uptown Funk" by Bruno Mars, "Partition" by Beyoncé, "24K Magic" by Bruno Mars and "24K Magic (remix)" by Power Music Workout.
 
This is the duo's second Grand Prix appearance; they placed fifth at Skate America® in 2020.
 
"It was our best performance we've ever done so far," Yehorov said. "It definitely was one of our best performances so far. We're very happy. It felt really good, and it felt the best we've competed."
 
WOMEN
 
For most of her senior career thus far, Glenn acknowledges that she's been an underdog.
 
Now, though, Glenn is fresh off the best U.S. Championships performance of her career, winning silver this past January, and leads the U.S. women at Skate America®.
 
Glenn sits in seventh place with 67.57 points for her short program set to "Circles" by Greta Svabo Beck and "Experience" by Ludovico Einaudi.
 
"Coming into this being the top lady did give me a lot of confidence," Glenn said. "We wanted to come in here and try and put out a performance that I could be happy with. And unfortunately today I'm not very happy with how I did, but I feel like in the free skate I'll be able to come out and do what I know how to do."
 
Three Russians hold the top spots, with Alexandra Trusova (77.69 points) in first, Daria Usacheva (76.71 points) in second and Kseniia Sinitsyna (71.51 points) in third.
 
In four prior Grand Prix appearances, Glenn's best finish is fifth at last year's Skate America®.
 
Though she was disappointed in how her short program went, the pride flags waving in the crowd as she took her bows gave her a whole new perspective.
 
"After I got done, I was disappointed. I felt really stiff, I felt not in command of the ice," Glenn said. "But then turning around and seeing that support… I am more than just my performance. I am more than just my skating on one random day. I know that what I'm doing is making somewhat of a change. So seeing that really cheered me up."
 
Audrey Shin is in ninth place with 62.82 points for her skate to "The Giving" by Michael W. Smith.
 
Shin made her Grand Prix debut at Skate America® in 2020, finishing third.
 
"Last year was a totally different experience from this year," Shin said. "Last year was more of a domestic competition. But I feel like I learned a lot from then, so I'm kind of putting it into this competition too. I think besides that, I just want to focus on my performances. And I'm happy with how I performed today. It's something I'm proud of. But I definitely want to attack the free a little more tomorrow and show my best."
 
Starr Andrews is in 10th place, scoring 61.94 points for her skate to "At Last" performed by herself, composed by Brady Kerr.
 
Competing as a replacement for Bradie Tennell, who withdrew due to injury, Andrews was
notified on Sunday evening that she would need to be in Las Vegas.
 
"It was a very quick turnaround for me, but I had been training really hard already, so it wasn't too hard to adjust," Andrews said. "I made a minor mistake on my toe-toe, and it's been really strong here, so that surprised me a little bit. But the rest of my skate felt really strong. I felt under my feet, and I really enjoyed having the crowd."

Competition concludes tomorrow with the free dances and women's free skate. Fans can watch the competition live and on-demand on Peacock Premium. The event will also be broadcasted live on NBC from 3-6 p.m. ET.

Check out the 2021 Guaranteed Rate Skate America Virtual Fan Experience for a behind the scenes look at the event.