BEIJING - Bay Area-born U.S. Olympic figure skater Vincent Zhou has dropped out of the Beijing Winter Games, after testing positive of COVID-19.In a raw and emotional video posted to Instagram on Monday, the 21-year-old athlete announced, "Unfortunately, I will have to withdraw from the individual event starting tomorrow." He described the turn of events as "pretty unreal," as he admitted he was still processing it all."I have been doing everything I can to stay free of Covid since the start of the pandemic," Zhou said, adding, "I've taken all the precautions I can.
I've isolated myself so much that the loneliness I've felt in the last month or two has been crushing at times." He went on to say, "The enormity of the situation, the pain of it all is pretty insane." Zhou tested positive during a routine screening, the U.S.
Figure Skating Association said in a statement Monday, the same day the U.S. team took silver in the team competition. SEE ALSO: China's pandemic Olympics begins, with lockdown and boycottsHe said he's shed a lot of tears, though they haven't been all sad tears."I’ve already lost count of the number of times I’ve cried today," the skater said. "But I’m happy to say that at least one of those times was happy tears.
That was when I found out that I became an Olympic silver medalist." On Monday the U.S. Figure Skating Association posted a message to Zhou on Twitter, expressing its pride and support for the athlete and wishing him a speedy recovery. "#TeamUSA is behind you," it said.