Zhu Yi: California-born Chinese figure skater slammed for finishing last at Beijing Winter Olympics
An American-born Chinese figure skater is being slammed on Chinese social media after finishing last and falling twice on the ice after having given up her US citizenship and changing her name to compete for the Communist country at the Winter Olympics in Beijing.
Beverly Zu, 19, is a California-born Chinese figure skater. She changed her name to Zhu Yi and gave up her US citizenship to represent China in the Winter Olympics. She finished with the lowest score of the event at Beijing's Capital Indoor Stadium after she failed to land a jump and fell on the opening combination and botched another jump later in her short program at the event.
READ MORE
Timothy LeDuc: Figure skater to be first openly non-binary athlete at Winter Olympics
Who is Nathan Chen? Internet finds its Winter Olympics hero as video of skater at 3 goes viral
Skating to 'Paint It Black' by The Rolling Stones, Zhu scored 47.03 after she tumbled on her first combination triple flip-triple toe-loop jump, crashed into the wall and bungled her triple loop later in the set.
(Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
Her performance knocked China from third to fifth place in the team event. Zhu decided in 2018 to compete for China in the Olympics. She changed her name and gave up her American citizenship, however, she is still facing criticism for not being fluent in Mandarin. Her poor debutant performance also questions being asked as to why the California-born skater was picked to represent China instead of a figure skater who was born in the country.
Zhu was born in Los Angeles to Chinese parents and given the name Beverly. She grew up with a privileged background. Her father, Zhu Songchun, is an award-winning scientist who joined the staff at Beijing's Peking University in 2020. He previously worked at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Zhu Yi's career
The Olympian started figure skating when she was seven years old. In 2018, she won the novice division while competing at the United States Figure Skating Championships in San Jose, California. Later that year, she made the decision to represent China in the Olympics, a move that followed the nation's efforts to attract top athletes to their team. She surrendered her American citizenship so she could compete for China and subsequently changed her name to Zhu Yi.
Zhu, during her first season skating for China, finished fourth at the 2019 Chinese Figure Skating Championships in Harbin. She then won bronze at the Sofia Trophy. The young skater also took 11th place on her ISU Grand Prix debut at the 2019 Cup of China.
While experts argued it was unlikely that Zhu would be in medal contention during the Winter Olympic games, she faced a lot of pressure ahead of her debut.
After her last-place performance, the skater was reportedly inconsolable. "I'm upset and a little embarrassed,I counted over and over again last night to see how many points I need to collect today to help my team advance," Zhu told Xinhua News. "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," she added.
However, many Chinese citizens did not take well to Zhu's fumble with sympathy and instead blasted her on social media. 'Zhu Yi has fallen' was trending on Chinese social media platform Weibo, with some users slamming her for alleged false patriotism. "Please let her learn Chinese first", before she talks about patriotism,' one Weibo user wrote. "This is such a disgrace," another commented, gaining 11,000 likes from other users. "Anyone would question how she was chosen to the team. Is it because she has a scientist father?" echoed another.
One Weibo user added, "Zhu Yi, how ridiculous your performance is! How dare you skate for China? You cannot even hold a candle to an amateur!"
Despite all the hate, the 19-year-old was offered kindness by a few Weibo users. "I hope people don't say this (insults) to Zhu," one wrote. "The level of our team is still far behind Russia and the US. It already showed courage by coming to the stage. No one who competes for the first time can perform perfectly. It's okay if she can adjust her condition in the next competition," said another.
According to a report by CNN, China has recruited at least a dozen foreign-born athletes in recent years to compete on its Olympic teams with Zhu being one of them.