For Vincent Zhou, his second Olympic experience is about to go off just as he had planned.
In a moment he has waited for since before the season began, Zhou was chosen by U.S. Figure Skating to compete in the men’s free skate portion of the Olympic team event – meaning he will get to perform his “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” program twice to the entirely Chinese crowd in Beijing.
The Olympic team event men’s free skate airs live on NBC at 10:50 p.m. ET. It can also be streamed on NBCOlympics.com or Peacock.
This program has special significance for Zhou not just because he first skated it in the 2018-19 season when he earned bronze at the 2019 World Figure Skating Championships, but also because his parents, Fei Ge and Max Zhou, emigrated from China to the U.S. in 1992.
The 21-year-old has longed to show off his program set to the soundtrack of a film that is based on a Chinese novel by the same name, starring a cast that is of Chinese heritage.
The first half of figure skating’s Olympic team event wrapped with the women’s short program Saturday night U.S. time, and, with less than an hour between, the free skate portion/dance commences with the men’s free skate.
Halfway through, the Russian Olympic Committee is in first with 36 points, closely followed by the Russian Olympic Committee (34), then Japan is third (20), Canada fourth (24) and China fifth (22).
The following five nations were cut and know their final result: Georgia (22, sixth), Italy (20, seventh), Czech Republic (15, eighth), Germany (8, ninth), Ukraine (8,10th).