Olympics 2022: Mixed emotions as US figure skating team wins silver; Zhou contracts COVID-19

US figure skaters celebrate their silver medal for the team competition.

American figure skaters gathered on the podium to celebrate their silver medal accomplishment, the highest finish since the figure skating team event was introduced in the 2014 Olympics 

"Where's Vincent?" asked Karen Chen, who came back from a stumble Sunday to help the team zoom up to the second-place finish behind the Russians.

The dance pair of Madison Chock and Evan Bates told the rest of the skaters that Vincent Zhou had tested positive on a COVID-19 test deflating the medal ceremony for the Americans. 

Zhou failed his second COVID-19 test Monday and had to withdraw from the men's figure-skating competition.

In an emotional five-minute video, Zhou said, “It’s pretty unreal that of all the people, it would happen to myself. And that’s not just because I’m still processing this turn of events, but also because I have been doing everything in my power to stay free of covid since the start of the pandemic.”

After a spectacular start on the first day, mostly because of Nathan Chen's spectacular skate, the US was about to drop to third after the second day stumbles of Zhou and Karen Chen.

“I definitely felt a little more pressure because I felt like I needed to redeem myself,” said Chen on Monday. “I think definitely just coming back from yesterday is a huge thing for me.”

Chen's performance plus the Chock and Evan's near flawless dance earned them the No. 1 spot over the favorite team from Russia. “I think it was hard to be completely oblivious to the nature of the scores,” Bates said. “At the end of the day, we just focused on what we could do to contribute in a significant way. We knew we could win the free dance.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AAPI perspective, follow me on Twitter @DioknoEd.

Olympics 2022: It's complicated for Chinese American athletes in the home of their ancestors

Vincent Zhou

For the Chinese American athletes in the Olympics, competing in Beijing has significance  that goes beyond their sport.

The city of Beijing and the country of China is the ancestral home of the Chinese American athletes, many still have family there.

"My grandparents still live here. Much of my extended family does. So this is almost like a second hometown to me," says figure skater Vincent Zhou.

Speaking about her father, who fled the country for his pro-democracy activities, 16-year old Alysa Liu told the Today Show before leaving for Beijing. "Obviously we still love the country of China, even after my dad left because of the government." 

Alysa Liu

"This is still his homeland, and he's very happy that I get to go to China again ... Just going back to China will make me feel good."

Nathan Chen, the United States' top men''s figure skater has fond memories of a visit to Beijing, his mother's hometown.

"I remember going to the Beijing Zoo," when he was younger, says Chen. "So like every time when we're driving from the (Olympic) Village here, I see the Beijing Zoo and am like, ‘Oh, I was here when I was 10.’

"So it's kind of cool to be able to see that. Also just hear stories from my mom growing up in Beijing and being like, ‘Wow, you know, I'm here,’" he tells the Associated Press.

"Hopefully at some point after the Games are over, I'll be able to explore Beijing a little bit more," added Chen.

Kai Owens

“It becomes full circle when I step off that plane in China,” Kai Owens told The Associated Press before arriving in Beijing.  “When my skis touch the snow in China, it’s going to be a really special moment for me because I get to ski in the Olympic Games in my birth country. It’s crazy how life works,” said the freestyle skiier, who was adopted when she was an infant by her Colorado parents.

Madison Chock's family roots more in the rural part of China. Chock is one-half of the ice dance team currently competing for a medal. 

“Every time I’m on the bus, I’m just looking out and studying the city and just imagining my roots are here, my ancestors are here,” says Chock, whose father is Chinese-Hawaiian. “And it’s a very cool sense of belonging in a way, to just be on the same soil that your ancestors grew up on and spent their lives on.”

“It’s really special, and China holds a really special place in my heart,” she told the AP.

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20 Asian Americans and Asian Canadians to watch at the Winter Olympics

Emotions flood over Chinese American athletes in Beiging Games

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AAPI perspective, follow me on Twitter @DioknoEd.

Chen wins men's skating title; five AAPI skaters named to the U.S. Olympic team

U.S. SKATING

Nathan Chen captured his record-setting sixth national  skating championship Sunday.

For the first time in 70 years, a U.S. man has won six consecutive national titles.

Three-time and reigning world champion Nathan Chen will head into next month's Olympic Games Beijing 2022 one title shy of two-time Olympic champ Dick Button's record, Button winning seven straight from 1946-52.

Chen, 22, captured his sixth title Sunday (Jan. 9) at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Nashville: Using his 2020 routine, he earned a free skate score of 212.62 added to his score for the short program to total 328.01.

He registered a 26-point win over the surprise of the weekend in 17-year-old Ilia Malinin, who was spectacular in both the short and free programs to claim the silver medal in his senior debut with a score of 302.48.

Vincent Zhou placed third and Jason Brown fourth.

The three-member U.S. men's team for Beijing 2022 was announced Sunday evening, with Chen, Zhou and Brown getting the nod. The selection committee bases its choices off of a skater's "body of work" from the recent past, including these national championships.

Earlier on Sunday, U.S. Figure Skating announced the two teams for pair skating and the three duos headed to Beijing for ice dance. With Chen and Zhou, there will be a total of five Asian Americans on the skating team. 

The other members of the team are:

Pair skating: Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier; Ashley Cain-Gribble and Timothy LeDuc

Ice dance: Madison Chock and Evan Bates; Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue; Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker. Chock is of Chinese and Hawaiian descent.

Mariah Bell, Karen Chen and Alysa Liu were named to the figure skating team on Saturday.

Alysa Liu and Karen Chen named to U.S. Olympic figure skating team, more AAPI athletes in contention

Madison Chock and Evan Bates won gold at the U.S. championships held in Nashville, Tenn.

Nathan Chen is back. After his short program Saturday, he's leading the men' figure skaters before the long program later today (Jan. 9, 2022) when the men's Olympic competitors will be named. 

Chen narrowly leads fellow 2018 Olympian Vincent Zhou and if all goes as expected, Zhou will join Chen when they compete in the Beijing Games next month. Zhou set a new personal best with his 112.78 score.

Asian Americans will once again be well represented in the figure skating team. As expected, Alysa Liu, who had to withdraw from competition Friday because she tested negative for COVID-19, was named to the women's Olympics figure skating team, joining new U.S. champion Mariah Bell and silver medalist Karen Chen.

Hawaii's Madison Chock and her partner Evan Bates won the dance team competition over Madison Hubbel and Zachary Donohue. The two teams, who train under the same coaches, have finished either first or second in the national championships for almost a decade and will most likely be named to the Olympic team.

Jessica Calalang and Brian Johnson will wait to hear if they make the U.S. Olympic team.

Who will represent the U.S. in the pairs competition is less certain. Filipino American Jessica Calalang teamed with Brian Johnson to win the silver in the pairs competition at the figure skating championships. They were edged by the pairs team of Ashley Cain-Gribble and Timothy LeDuc, the champions in 2019. COVID-19 forced the withdrawal of the No. 1 ranked pair of Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier. While Knerim and Frazier are expected to be named as Olympians, there is only one pairs spot left for the Olympics.

The remainder of the U.S. figure skating team will be named later Sunday after the men's final.

Ice skating: Nathan Chen stumbles, Vincent Zhou rises wins Grand Prix title

USA SKATE

For the first time, Nathan Chen beat fellow American Nathan Chen in Las Vegas over the weekend.

An Asian American came in first in the men's free skate at Skate America on Saturday at Las Vegas' Orleans Areina, but it wasn't perennial champion Nathan Chen.

A spectacular Vincent Zhou easily held off Chen’s challenge, winning his first Grand Prix title and snapping Chen’s streak of 14 consecutive titles over the span of three-plus seasons.

“I don’t think it’s sunk in yet,” Zhou said. “I didn’t really expect this result. What I did expect of myself was to be as well prepared and well trained as I possibly could be, and focusing on that every day at home led to the seemingly impossible becom(ing) possible.”

When added to Friday’s short program scores, Zhou won gold with 295.56 points, and Japan’s Shoma Uno took silver with 270.68 points. Despite placing second in the free skate, Chen — who finished fourth in the short program — settled for bronze with 269.37 points.

It is the first time Zhou has defeated Chen, who is a year older, in senior competition. The win comes on the eve of Zhou’s birthday — the Palo Alto, California, native turned 21 on Sunday (Oct. 24).

Zhou credited getting an early start this season — Skate America is his fourth competition — as well as superior preparation and good health, for his win.

“My training this year has been by far the most consistent and productive training I have ever had,” he said. “Being well prepared, training to perform under whatever circumstances, is really paying off. ... It’s just all about managing the ups and downs, not letting anything get into my head, working hard, keeping the goals in mind.”

For his part, Chen shrugged off the end of his winning streak, which had stretched back to the 2018 World Figure Skating Championships.  

“It is not devastating,” he said. “It was inevitably going to end (at) some point in time. ... I am really proud of the guys up here. If anyone was going to break it, I’m glad it was (Vincent).”

The two Team USA athletes both put on powerful technical displays in their free skates. Zhou attempted, and landed, five quadruple jumps, while Chen tried six quads, landing four and doubling out of the other two.

“Trying and accomplish(ing) are very different things, right?” Chen said. “I ended up doing four. ... The more you put out, the more risky it is. Is it worth it, I don't know. It depends on the day, I guess.”

Zhou’s free skate, set to the “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” soundtrack, is far more seasoned, choreographically layered and compelling than Chen’s program to Mozart selections. Zhou first performed it during the 2018-19 season, winning the world bronze medal.

“I think it’s a very strong all-around program, it fits my character — well, it’s exciting,” he said. “I’m able to move to it well, it has a strong ending.”

The judges agreed: they awarded Zhou 198.13 points for his free skate, while Chen earned 186.48 points. 

Zhou had the last word at the press conference, tipping his hat to his longtime rival.

“Obviously, I don’t expect to win everything, I’m not Nathan Chen,” he said. “It’s an honor to compete in such a deep men’s field and an honor to win the gold medal. ... We are going to take this for what it is and ride the momentum and keep moving forward.”

In the ice dancing competition, Asian American Madison Chock and her partner Evan Bates, came in second to with 208.23. The pair was edged by their training mates Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue who earned 209.54 points.

-- USA SKATE

Nathan Chen skates to 5th straight U.S. championship; 7 aapi skaters will represent the U.S.

Silver medalist Vincent Zhou, left, and gold medalist Nathan Chen will skate for the U.S.

Asian American figure skaters continue to perform well in the sport with seven qualifying five athletes out of 15 for the 2021 U.S. Figure Skating team following competing in the 2021 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Las Vegas last weekend.

Nathan Chen, Vincent Zhou, Karen Chen, Madison Chock and Jessica Calalang will skate for the U.S. at the World's Championships in March.

Reigning U.S. champion Nathan Chen (Salt Lake Figure Skating) won his fifth straight U.S. title Sunday , becoming the first man to accomplish the feat since Dick Button won his fifth title in 1950.

Chen earned 208.36 points in Sunday’s free skate to total 322.28 points at the 2021 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships at The Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.

“[Winning my fifth straight title] means the world to me,” he said. “[Dick Button] is a true skating icon. It feels incredible to be trying to chase something that someone like that has done. I’m nowhere near the level that he was at, but it’s cool to be mentioned in his realm.”

Right behind Chen, Vincent Zhou (SC of San Francisco) medaled at his fifth consecutive U.S. Championships, earning the silver medal with 291.38 total points. Zhou scored 183.59 points for Sunday afternoon’s free skate.

Bradie Tennell reclaimed the title for Women's Figure Skating after three years, beating out two time champion, 15-year old Alysa Liu, who wound up in fourth place.

Joining Tennell on the team for the world's championship is Karen Chen, the 2017 U.S. Champion and 2018 Olympian. It will be Chen's second appearance at World's.

Hawaii's Madison Chock and her longtime partner Evan Bates will compete in Ice Dancing.

Filipino American Jessica Calalang will team up with Brian Johnson to compete in Pairs.

Nathan Chen dominates men's skating; AAPI skaters on worlds' team

SCREEN CAPTURE / YOUTUBE

Nathan Chen skating his short program.

Watch out! Nathan Chen is on a mission with a vengeance. Since he finished in the 2018 Olympics with a disappointing performance, winning a bronze medal instead of the predicted gold, he hasn't lost a single competition.

The Yale sophomore continued his unbeaten streak Sunday (Jan. 26) by winning the US men's figures skating championship in dominating fashion.  It was the fourth straight year he won that title. Though it wasn't his cleanest skate (Chen is recovering from the flu), he still scored an impressive 216.04 points.

Combined with his record-setting short program, Chen finished with a total score of 330.17, a whopping 37.29 points above the second-place finisher Jason Brown.

During his long performance, perhaps because of his illness, Chen appeared to hold back even though he easily landed a pair of quad toe loops, a quad flip and a quad Salchow.

He’s undefeated since placing fifth at the PyeongChang Olympics with a disastrous 17th-place short program. Only a stupendous free skate in which he performed six quadruple jumps vaulted him to third place.

There was a bit of minor controversy between the third and fourth place competitors.

Tomoki Hiwatashi, the world junior champion, jumped from fifth to third after landing a pair of quads in a clean free skate. Usually that would be enough to be named to the three-man world championships team.

But that spot was instead given by a U.S. Figure Skating committee to fourth-place finisher Vincent Zhou, who has more international experience.

Olympian Zhou finished fourth with one quad in his free skate. Zhou had minor errors on some of his jump landings. As a freshman at Brown Universitiy, Zhou skipped training for the entire autumn. He only had a month of training before the nationals after moving to Toronto in late December and had a change in coaches.

The same kind of reasoning went into the decision to drop silver medalist Jessica Calalang and Brian Johnson from representing the US at the worlds. The committee awarded the second pairs spot to the more experienced team of Ashley Cain-Gribble and Timothy LeDuc, who finished fourth.

Dance team consisting of first-place finisher Hawaiian Chinese American Madison Chock and her partner Evan Bates will compete in the ice dance competition at world's.

Calalang and Johnson will still be able to represent the US at the Four Continents Championships next month.

WIKI COMMONS

US champion Alysa Liu at 13 years of age, is too young for international competition.

Alysa Liu, who won the women's title, will not be in the US team for world's because she is too young for international competition. It is expected that the Oakland, Calif. skater will compete in the world junior championship.

2018 Olympian Karen Chen, who finished fourth in the women's competition, won't be on the world's team but will skate for the US at the Four Continents Championships.

AAPI skaters will continue to have a strong presence in US figure skating for the foreseeable future to at least the 2011 Olympics. In the 2018 Olympics, seven of the 14 figure skaters, seven were AAPI athletes.

The world championships are set for March 16-22 in Montreal. The Four Continents Championships will run Feb. 3-9 in Seoul. 

Nathan Chen wins World's Figure Skating title

Nathan Chen, world champion for a second time.

ASAM NEWS &
VIEWS FROM THE EDGE

U.S. Olympian Nathan Chen took home his second World Figure Skating title today in Saitama, Japan, reports Team USA.
Chen overcame a sensational effort from silver medalist and home country favorite Yuzuru Hanyu.

Vincent Zhou took the bronze, making this the first time two U.S. men were on the medal podium at the same time since 1996 when Todd Eldredge won and Rudy Galindo was third.

“As soon as I stepped on the ice, I felt that energy already there. He (Hanyu) has been pushing the sport making the sport so enjoyable, so competitive, and that definitely made me so much better of a skater,” said Chen, according to The Guardian.

Chen, a student at Yale University, opened with a nice quad lutz, then stumbled on the landing of his quad flip, before hitting two quad toe loops, including one in combination with a triple toe loop.

Zhou, too, was elated by his performance.

“I’m really proud of what I did today,” he told Team USA.

American women finished without a medal in a category dominated by 16-year old Russian skater Alina Zagitova, followed by Kazakhstan's Elizabet Tursynbaeva, and Russia's Evgenia Medvedeva, who took silver and bronz respectively. Bradie Tennell was the top American finisher who came in seventh.

Injuries sidelined U.S. Olympians Karen Chen and Mirai Nagasu. U.S. champion, 13-year old Alyssa Liu, is ineligible to compete in senior international events because she's too young.

The U.S. Ice Dancing team of Madison Chock and Evan Bates, two-time world medalists, finished sixth. Chock, who is of Chinese/Hawaiian descent, had ankle surgery in April and the duo could not compete until January.

Chock had sustained her ankle injury in July of 2017, and, after fighting through it to skate all season long, she and Bates went through the unimaginable: A fall in the free dance at the Olympics. It was a terrible moment for the team, which is romantically linked, and much of their energy post-surgery has been focused on a re-imagination of what they want their next Olympic journey to be.

However, their American teammates, Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue, were able to win a bronze in Ice Dancing.

The popular siblings, Maia and Alex Shibutani, who won bronze at the 2018 Olympics for the U.S., chose not to compete this season.

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Nathan Chen threepeats at U.S. Figure Skating Champiionship

US. FIGURE SKATING

NNATHAN CHEN

By Louis Chan
ASAM NEWS

Nathan Chen is so dominating his sport the commentators are running out of superlatives to describe it.

The Utah native scored 342 points to dominate the U.S. Figure Skating Championships winning his third straight U.S. Championship.

“All hail Nathan, the great. He took me to another world, said Johnny Weir, the last U.S. skater to win three straight championships. “There is a dreamy quality to the music selection. He’s taken skating to an entirely new world.”

Tara Lipinsky, who won Olympic gold in 1998, went over-the-top in her praise.

“He is a god. He is not human,” she proclaimed. “This is it, guys. This is what skating is about. He’s pushing the boundaries."

Chen so dominated with his multiple quad jumps that the only suspense going into Sunday’s free skate was which skater would take second place -- Vincent Zhou of San Jose or Jason Brown of Los Angeles. Brown held a narrow lead over Zhou after the short program. In the end, Zhou finished second, about 58 points behind Chen after Brown fell while attempting a quad in the long program.

“I’m so happy right now,” Chen said about his victory. “That program went exactly as I wanted it to.”

Chen will skip next month's Four Continents Championship in California in order to concentrate on his Yale studies. Although he is a heavy favorite going into the Worlds March 18-24 in Japan, Chen isn’t taking anything for granted.

“Worlds is a whole another ballgame,” he cautioned.

After the competition, the top three men, Chen, Zhou and Brown were chosen to represent the U.S. at the World's Championship. Waiting in the wings if any of thte top three could not compete is the No. 1 alternate, Tomoki Hiwatashi.

Views From the Edge contributed to this report.
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Skater Nathan Chen finally gets his gold medal

SCREEN CAPTURE

Nathan Chen finishes his near-perfect routine.

WITH HIS disappointing Olympic performance still fresh in his memory, American Nathan Chen won the World Championship in convincing fashion, almost 50 points above his nearest competitor.

"I felt the pressure, but I used what I learned from the Olympics and tried to bring it here,” Chen said, “’Having that experience will propel me in the future better than if I had done the short program better.”

The 18-year old successfully repeated his Olympic long-program feat of six quads that almost put him with reach of the medals podium but falling short in fifth place. This time, his competitors were the ones making the mistakes: 14 sprawls, splats, and tumbles among five competitors as they attempted the all-mighty quad. There were three falls by silver medalist Shoma Uno of Japan, who matched his Olympic silver, and two by Mikhail Kolyada of Russia, who took bronze.

Skating last, Chen said he knew the others made mistakes and that gave him the confidence to attempt six quads knowing he had a little cushion in case he made an error.

Fellow American Vincent Zhou, the youngest skater on the Olympic team, fell three times in the final skate, tumbling to 14th place after a strong short program put him within striking distance of the podium.

By winning the world championships on Saturday, Chen became the first U.S. male singles skater to do so since Evan Lysacek in 2009 and the youngest man from any nation since Yevgeny Plushenko in 2001.

“I can’t even begin to describe how angry I am at myself for letting such an important FS [free skate] get away from me,” tweeted Zhou.

Even though Olympic gold medal winner Yuzuru Hanyu and bronze medalist Javier Fernandez, did not compete at worlds, Chen said he values this victory no less.

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Chen and Zhou in position to medal at skatings' World Championship

Nathan Chen

LOOKING very much like the Nathan Chen we expected to see at the recently concluded Olympics,, Nathan Chen sits atop the standings after the short program at the World Championship in Milan, Italy.

Fellow U.S. Olympian, Vincent Zhou, the youngest member of Team USA, skated the best short program of his life and is in third place in the men's figure skating competition.

Russia’s Mikhail Kolyada is in second heading into Saturday’s free skate.

Chen, the gold medal favorite in the Olympics, seeks to redeem himself after finishing a disappointing fifth the Olympic Winter Games in PyongChang, South Korea last month. He fell repeatedly while attempting his quads in his short program putting him in 17th position.

In the Olympics long program, Chen attempted a comeback with a record-breaking six quads to zoom back near the top but it wasn't enough to place him on the medals podium.

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2018 Winter Olympics: Nathan Chen dazzles with six quads but falls short of a medal

SCREEN CAPTURE / NBC

Nathan Chen finally delivers.

WHERE HAS HE BEEN? The Nathan Chen we were expecting to see finally showed up today (Feb. 16) with an unprecedented six quadruple jumps in his skating routine.

His dazzling performance that had the audience cheering and gasping, almost pulled off the impossible, coming from 17th place to almost medaling. With his record score of 215.08 points, Chen actually won the long program segment of the men's figure skating and held the bronze medal position until the last two skaters performed strong enough to edge out Chen;s quad attack.

“I definitely did want to redeem myself after the two short programs and I think I did here,” said Chen, who had come into Gangneung Ice Arena undefeated and as a medal favorite.

Chen, 18, had also struggled skating his short program in the figure skating team event, in which Team USA won the bronze medal.

Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan became the first male skater since Dick Button of Team USA in 1948 and 1952 to win back-to-back Olympic titles. Hanyu finished with an Olympic record total of 317.85, followed by teammate Shoma Uno, who edged Javier Fernandez of Spain, 306.90 to 305.24.

Chen finished in fifth place with a total score of 297.35 points. 

Vincent Zhou, the youngest member of Team USA at age 17, was sixth with 276.69 while 28-year-old Adam Rippon was 10th (259.36). All three Team USA skaters finished in the top 10 for the 15th time in Olympic history.

Chen, who last year became the first skater to land five quads in a program, had originally planned five for his free skate Saturday. 

RELATED: Figure skater Zhou flies; Chen falls

But after his two disastrous short programs, in which he made mistakes on his jumps and scored in the low 80s -- about 20 points lower than expected -- Chen decided he was going to show he truly was the “Quad King."

“It was sort of an anger thing,” he said. “I was just like, ‘Oh screw it, I’m going to try it. At this point I have literally nothing to lose. I’ll just go for it. And then I was like, ‘Well I can’t think about that right now. I can’t dwell on it. I’ll readjust in the morning, rethink about it.”

He said it was too early in the morning to try all the quads. His even gave his coach, Rafael Arutunian, a surprise when he threw in the sixth quad.

“That was me,” Chen said. “I didn’t even tell him I was doing that.”

Five of the six quads were clean, as Chen put his hand down on a quad flip, his extra jump. 

“I’m glad I was able to show myself and show everyone else that I can bounce back from a bad performance,” he said. “And honestly, I am human, I make mistakes. Unfortunately I had been having a really bad time. But I’m really happy with what I did here.”

Chen will have four years to mull over what might have been. He'll only be 22 years old when the next Olympics convene in China. 

Chen will have to be careful. His teammate Zhou surprised everyone with his Olympic performance.

The U.S. could very well have two medal finishers four years from now. 

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2018 Winter Olympics: Figure skater Zhou flies, Chen falls

Wow! Watch American skater Vincent Zhou do his  quadruple lutz.

ASAM NEWS

VINCENT ZHOU of San Jose, Calif. became the first skater Thursday night to land a quadruple lutz at an Olympics.

You can watch his performance at SF Gate.

He scored an 84.53 and placed 12th in the preliminary competition going into the finals.

Zhou, 17, says he is pleased with his performance, but knows he can do better.

Patrick Chan of Canada is in sixth place, but 14 points behind third place finisher Shoma Uno of Japan.

Meanwhile, America’s best hope for a gold medal in the men’s competition had a rough night. Nathan Chen slipped once and fell twice.

He is currently in 17th place. He told reporters he made every mistake possible.

His showing follows another poor skate during the team competition.

However, Team USA held on to win a bronze medal.

The men's figure skating finals continue tonight, which NBC will live stream at 8 p.m. ET, 5 p.m. Pacific.
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TGIF Feature:: 2018 Winter Olympics - 12 Asian Americans on Team USA

Hailey Langland will compete in Snowboard Big-Air at the Winter Olympics.

THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT!

AT MY AGE, I think it's OK for me to descibel the young Asian/American olympians as kids.

That's not meant to be an insult or to denigrate the hours upon hours of training they put into their sport, that's just a reminder, no matter the outcome of their efforts, they are among the best the United States has to offer, they're just teenagers or young adults who grew up listening to the same music, watching the same TV shows, reading the same news stories, getting basically the same classroom education as all of America's children.

But ... they are special! They'll be competing at the Winter Games being held in PyeongCheng, South Koreah which starts Fridiay, Feb. 9.

In order to reach the level of athleticism that they will be competing at, they've had to be disciplined, dedicated and willing to sacrifice their time that they might have used to do what us ordinary mortals do: make friends, go on dates, party all night, overindulge in junk food.

For the next couple of weeks, they will put everkything on the line as they compete against the best-of-the-best athletes from other countries - other kids. They will soar, twirl, race to represent their country - our country.

NBC broadcast these commercials featuring Nathan Chen and Chloe Kim - both of whom are expected to medal - to promote their coverage of the Games:

Since most people of color come from warmer climes, it is not surprising that the winter sports are dominated by people who grew up in snow country. Scandinavian countries, Germany, France, Italy, Canada traditionally do well in the Winter Games. Throw in the U.S.A,, too, because we pour in a lot of money into those developing athletes.

And let's face it: You won't find whole lot of bobsled runs, ice rinks or ski jumps in most big city neighborhoods. Accessibility to those venues is limited and the cost to go skiing is beyond a lot of people. Therefore, the winter sports don't have a whole lot of diversity.

RELATED: Filipino/American skier represents the Philippines

Team USA numbers 243 athletes, which is the largest team any nation has sent to a Winter Olympics. Of that group,  only 10 are African/American — 4 percent —  12 are Asian/American.

“We’re not quite where we want to be,” said Jason Thompson, the USOC’s director of diversity and inclusion. “. . . I think full-on inclusion has always been a priority of Team USA. I think everybody’s always felt it should represent every American.”

That's an understatement. The Summer Olympic team the USA sent to Brazil two years ago, of the 550 athletes, 23 percent (or 125) of the athletes were African/American. 

Asian/Americans on Team USA

Men's Figure Skating:

• Nathan Chen
• Vincent Zhou

Women's Figure Skating

• Karen Chen
• Mirai Nagasu

Ice Dance Pairs

• Maia Shibutani/Alex Shibutani
• Madison Chock with partner Evan Bates

Speed Skaters

• JR Celski
• Thomas Hong
• Aaron Tran

Snowboarding Half-pipe

• Chloe Kim

Snowboarding Big Air

• Hailey Langland

The opening ceremony for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, takes place 6-8 a.m. EST on Friday. (Feb. 9)  Don't worry, the channels will undoubtedly replay the ceremonies later in the day.
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