American-born figure skater Zhu Yi, who gave up her American citizenship to compete for China at the Beijing Winter Olympics, faced abuse on Chinese social media after crashing into a wall in the national team competition.
The social network Weibo, a combination of Twitter and local Facebook, claims that it now has 93 accounts and has deleted 300 offensive posts about the Olympic athlete, who was born in California to Chinese parents and won the national title in her youth.
Zhu Yi crashes on the ice.
not nice,
The latter has also faced criticism from conservative political figures in the United States for changing her sporting loyalty, those now forced to face criticism from the other side, who mocked her for the fall while others criticized her for not mastering Chinese.
Zhou's unsuccessful performance was described as a "disgrace" by web surfers, who wondered why the 19-year-old girl was chosen over Chinese-born athletes.
The hashtags "Zhu Yi's consecutive mistakes" and "Zhu Yi again with tears on the ice" were trending, and some commented that the Olympics are not a training platform.
Defector Zhu Yi falls a second time after giving up US citizenship to compete for Chinahttps: //t.co/FW9ScDX0dW
- Truckistan Amb.
Poso đ (@JackPosobiec) February 7, 2022
However, signaling that the authorities are interested in maintaining positive messages around the Olympics, censorship intervened to make the hashtag "Zhu Yi has fall" unseen while the official Xinhua news agency Xinhua expressed its support for the tweet, saying: "For young skaters of China, "They need time and tolerance to compete better in the future. Do not cry, Joe Yi. We are with you."
"There have been some mistakes, but it's been over. I hope I can adapt and compete well later," Zhou told the state-run China News website after her competition on Monday.
"I was very excited and excited. Even during the show I got excited and wanted to cry. I couldn't stop it, so I cried. Of course there were regrets too."
US-born figure skater Zhu Yi breaks down in tears after 2022 Olympics tumble https://t.co/sIzgfdalDy pic.twitter.com/UoafIAVjkZ
- New York Post (@nypost) February 7, 2022
Zhou finished last in the short program and China came in fifth in the competition, which Russia won, with the US taking money and Japan bronze.
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