Zhou, Brown, Hiwatashi chosen to represent U.S. at Four Continents Championships

Vincent Zhou, a 2018 figure skating Olympian, and Jason Brown, a 2014 Olympian, were chosen to compete in the men’s event at the Four Continents Championships, Feb. 5-10 at the Honda Center in Anaheim. The third member of the men’s team will be Tomoki Hiwatashi, who was the 2016 U.S. junior champion and 2016 world junior bronze medalist.

Zhou, Brown, and Hiwatashi finished second, third and fourth, respectively, at the just-concluded U.S. figure skating championships. Nathan Chen, who on Sunday won his third straight national title — and did it by margin of more than 58 points — won’t compete in the Four Continents event. However, Chen, who trained in Lakewood until he enrolled at Yale a few months ago, will join Zhou and Brown at the world championships, which will be held in Saitama, Japan, in March. Chen has been training on his own in Connecticut, supplemented by FaceTime sessions with his coach, Rafael Arutunian, who is based in Southern California.

Zhou, 18, finished sixth at the Pyeongchang Olympics and 14^th at the world championships. He’s from the Bay Area and trains in Colorado Springs. Brown, 24, is a fan favorite because of his lyrical skating but lacks the arsenal of quadruple jumps that many of the top skaters have. He finished ninth in the men’s event at the 2014 Sochi Games and contributed to a bronze-medal performance in the team event. He didn’t make the 2018 Olympic team. Hiwatashi, 19, placed fourth in both phases of the U.S. competition, nearly 20 points behind Brown.