Above: Photo courtesy of Daniel King
By Troy Schwindt
When “Jeopardy!” host Ken Jennings visited with contestant Daniel King during a May 7 broadcast, King revealed his love for ice skating as a member of Brown University Figure Skating.
King graduated in May with a degree in applied math and mechanical engineering. During his time at the school in Providence, Rhode Island, he also delved into such areas as physics, French studies, linguistics, geophysics and German studies.
It was while waiting to resume a rigorous academic schedule at the Ivy League school because of the pandemic that King decided to give skating another try.
Photo courtesy of Daniel King
“I started skating in middle school, when my mom signed up both me and my brother for Learn to Skate lessons at Mennen Sports Arena in New Jersey,” King said. “This meant that every Saturday, she practically dragged me out to the rink. I remember taking my Basic 1 with Susie Kelley, who along with Andy Stroukoff, was a regular face at Mennen.
“I was adventurous and impatient enough that ‘Miss Susie,’ as we called her, let me try the elements in Basic Skills 2 as well, and I passed both in one session. That moment of achievement might have been when I first decided that skating wasn’t all that much of a chore after all. After getting my patch for passing Basic Skills 8, I started lessons for testing and ice dance, but I injured my knee during one particularly rough fall, and I told myself I finally had the perfect excuse to quit skating.”
Fast forward a decade later and King found himself watching the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing.
“I was more deeply moved by the sport than I had ever remembered being,” King said. “There are just emotions and kinds of intensity that you don't understand as a kid, and I was struck by how precisely Vincent Zhou, Nathan Chen and Yuzuru Hanyu — I have a soft spot for the latter as a classical music nerd — were accessing these emotions without so much as a word. I thought to myself, ‘You know what? I could sort of see myself doing that.’”
King subsequently ventured to the Oakland Ice Center in the Bay Area (during the pandemic) and rented skates during a public session. It took a few hours, but he regained the muscle memory and, more importantly, was having a blast on the ice.
“As, I think, Vincent put it at one point, ‘It feels like flying.’ Indeed, it did,” King said.
Following the pandemic, King continued his education at Brown and joined Brown Figure Skating. He and his fellow clubmates practiced a couple of times a week at Meehan Auditorium and participated in area competitions.
During the 2023–24 season, Brown Figure Skating had a competitive roster of 15 skaters, 50 recreational club members and a mailing list of a couple hundred students who engage with the club to various degrees. Former Team USA member Pooja Kalyan and Julie Yeo helped coordinate the club’s efforts.
Having Zhou on the team, King said, was an “unparalleled learning opportunity.”
Photo courtesy of Daniel King
“Just seeing the technique of a world-level skater first-hand is a masterclass on its own, but Vincent has also been a supportive and spirited voice on our team, exuding sportsmanship on the ice and cheering for us as a fan in the stands. He's a role model and a constant source of inspiration, and his positive influence has made all of us better.”
In terms of his “Jeopardy!” experience, King said friends, family and even old acquaintances came out of the woodwork and wanted to know about his journey to the trivia show.
“When you go in front of some nine million people — especially if you feel you didn’t do your best [he placed second] — looking back at the experience can be tough,” King said.
He added, “If you ask me, the kind of thinking that ‘Jeopardy!’ sparks us to do is more than just trivial. Other friends of mine, knowing me for the nerd that I am, were surprised that I made it on TV: ‘Surely, they called the wrong Daniel!’”
The most touching reaction that he received came from Kelley and Stroukoff; he hadn't seen the couple, now retired, in a decade. Shortly after his episode aired, he got a message in his inbox from Kelley.
“She said how much she had enjoyed seeing me on ‘Jeopardy!,’ recognizing me instantly the moment I went on screen,” King said. “Despite all the years and the inches I had grown since my days at Mennen, she told me, ‘I could never forget that face!’ It turns out that Susie and Andy watch Jeopardy! every night, leading to our wonderful internet reunion.”
King had never been a trivia fiend but does enjoy a good pun, and gets a thrill from connecting the dots, so to speak. In Aug. 2023, just before the start of school, he thought he'd take the “Jeopardy!” online test.
An email popped into his inbox a couple of months later, saying he’d been selected for a live gameplay audition. After that, it was another few months before he heard from the show again.
“In February, a John from ‘Jeopardy!’ sent me a short, cryptic text message asking if I could hop on a call about ‘Jeopardy!,’” King said. “I could think of only one reason why they'd want to call me, but every part of me was thinking, surely the very last reason would be to invite me on the actual show, right? Well, it turns out that's exactly what happened.”
In his game, the New Jersey native answered some tough geography and zoological questions, but his most redemptive moment was in Final Jeopardy, in which the category was “Famous Characters.”
“As a longtime classical musician, I could not think of a single response that remotely fit the clue aside from the protagonist in Bizet’s Carmen, so I wrote that down incredulously just as the theme music was coming to a close,” King said. “It was a carefully reasoned guess, but I was still shocked to be the only contestant having given a correct response in Final Jeopardy.”
Another memorable experience from the show was getting to meet the GOAT, Jennings. Jennings is the most decorated “Jeopardy!” player of all time.
“It's a humbling brush with amazing talent,” said King, who will begin a graduate program this Fall at Yale in statistics and data science. “It's funny to have the record holder for longest winning streak in the history of ‘Jeopardy!’ be your host, because you know that he knows the correct response to the clue. When you’re stumped or you answer incorrectly, you’re maybe a little more embarrassed, but Ken did a great job of making us feel supported as well as relating to folks back on their couch at home.”
