Caroline Zhang
Figure Skating - Singles
2010 Olympic hopeful
Personal Specs
Height: 5'4"
Coach: Mingzhu Li
Short List Performance
- 2007 World Junior Champion
- Two-time World Junior Championships silver medalist (2008 and 2009)
- 2009 U.S. Championships bronze medalist
- 2008 U.S. Championships - fourth
- Ranked No. 8 in the ISU World Standings as of May 2009
Vancouver Watch
The top-ranked American woman, Zhang is well accomplished for a 16-year-old. She has been an elite junior-level performer for the last three years and has held her own on the senior stage, too, finishing in the top four at the last two U.S. Championships. She did not qualify for one of the U.S. Team's two spots at the 2009 World Championships, though she was the top U.S. finisher at February's Four Continents Championships, placing fourth. Making the U.S. Olympic Team is no sure thing now that the U.S. women will only have two spots at the Winter Games for the first time since 1994, making it even more competitive to qualify.
Personal
Zhang, whose parents are Chinese immigrants, began figure skating at age 5, prompted by watching the sport on TV. She attends Connections Academy in Capistrano, Calif., and has worked with autistic children at her elementary school. She looks up to Michelle Kwan, also of Chinese heritage, and told an English-language Chinese newspaper, "I wish I could be the 'Kwan No. 2' one day."
Her hobbies include playing the piano and the violin, ballet and art, and she has a passion for reading and helping animals. Zhang wants to tour, coach and help animals after her figure skating career is over.
Did You Know...?
- Says she can sit on her exercise ball for eight and a half minutes
- One of her choreographers, Karen Kwan-Oppegard, is Michelle Kwan's sister
- Says figure skating came easy to her because she grew up doing ballet
- She is bilinguall