One of the most complex figures at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing is Chinese figure skater Zhu Yi, 19, who has made headlines after falling twice on the ice in two days and leaving the rink in tears while attracting vicious criticism on social media from the home crowd.
Yi suffered a nightmare start in the Chinese capital on Sunday when she scored just 47.03 on her Olympic debut after tumbling during her first combination jump and crashing into a barrier, before bungling a triple loop later in her set.
China’s women’s team were in third place when she took to the ice at the Beijing Capital Indoor Stadium but had sunk to third by the time she departed.
“I’m upset and a little embarrassed,” she told the media afterwards. “I counted over and over again last night to see how many points I need to collect today to help my team advance. I guess I felt a lot of pressure because I know everybody in China was pretty surprised with the selection for ladies’ singles and I just really wanted to show them what I was able to do but unfortunately I didn’t.”
That evening, the hashtag “Zhu Yi has fallen” trended on Weibo, with users piling in to abuse her and question why she was ever selected for the national team.
Things took a turn for the worse on Monday in the freestyle event when she tumbled again after landing her first two jumps before tearfully completing her routine and exiting.
The hostility towards her appears to stem, at least in part, from the fact that she was actually born in Westwood, California, and raised in Encino as “Beverly Zu”, only relinquishing her American citizenship and changing her name when she opted to represent China in 2018.
Her parents were affluent immigrants to the US, her father Zhu Songchun a professor of computer science who taught at the University of California, Los Angeles, for many years before moving to Peking University more recently.
While Yi is not the only American-born athlete representing China in Beijing, she is less popular than the likes of skier Eileen Gu because she is not able to speak Mandarin Chinese fluently.
Nevertheless, she is clearly a skilled skater and deserves the crowd’s support, given that she has been performing since she was just seven years old and won the novice division of the US Figure Skating Championships in San Jose in 2018.
During her first season skating in China in 2019, she finished fourth at the 2019 Chinese Figure Skating Championships in Harbin, won bronze at the Sofia Trophy and took 11th place on her ISU Grand Prix debut at the 2019 Cup of China.
One supporter who has gallantly leapt to her defence this week is Chinese two-time world bronze medalist Jin Boyang, who told Xinhua News: “Zhu is a hard-working girl, and should not be blamed for her first performance on the Olympic stage, whether it’s good or bad.
“I fully understand her position. I was there too. She’s under huge pressure as China’s last performer in the team event short programme and the sole skater in women’s figure skating, especially after her selection over the two other girls.”
