California-Born Figure Skater Attacked for Poor Performance

By Yasma Baalbaki

Zhu Yi, a 19-year-old figure skater is receiving social media attacks after she fell flat on the ice and finished last in the women’s short program team event Sunday in the Beijing 2022 winter Olympics.
Zhu Yi was born in Los Angeles to a Chinese immigrant family. In 2018, she gave up her American citizenship and decided to compete for China.

Zhu Yi is receiving brutal criticism as she represents China and can’t speak fluent Chinese. Many have questioned why she was chosen to represent China at the expense of an athlete born in the country.
“I’m upset and a little embarrassed,” Zhu said after the race.

Videos of her poor performance received millions of views on social media and included comments condemning her patriotism and athletic abilities. “This is such a disgrace,” said comment with 11,000 upvotes.