Is this how China treats its athletes? Figure skater Zhu Yi under attack after fall on Winter Olympics debut

Athletes representing China have always faced backlash for poor performances, as the Chinese government continues to put huge pressure to increase the medals tally at the Olympics in a bid to signify national strength.

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Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 was California-born figure skater Zhu Yi's dream debut. Instead, her Olympic debut for Team China has turned out to be a nightmare for the 19-year-old. The athlete is facing a severe firestorm on Chinese social media after falling flat on the ice and finishing last in the women's short program team event on Sunday.

Hashtag 'Zhu Yi has fallen' has been trending on Weibo, China's Twitter-like platform. In just a few hours, the trend gained over 200 million views, with many questioning why the American-born figure skater was chosen to represent China at the expense of an athlete born in the country itself. A comment that said, "This is such a disgrace', received almost 11,000 upvotes. By Sunday evening, the hashtag appeared to have been censored. However, it remains unclear why.

On Sunday, Zhu Yi was the first to compete on Day 2 of the figure skating team event. She entered the ice rink amidst loud cheers, mainly from the Chinese crowd at the Capital Indoor Stadium in Beijing. However, unfortunate for the figure skater, she tumbled and crashed into the wall after a failed jump in the opening combination. She also missed another jump later in the event, ending with the lowest score of the event. As a result, China fell from third place to fifth place in the standings - enough to progress in the next round.

Following the disastrous event, an upset Zhu said she was upset and a little embarrassed. Admitting that she felt a lot of pressure, Zhu added that she was aware everyone in China was surprised with her selection for the ladies' singles. "I just wanted to show them what I was able to do, but unfortunately, I didn't," a teary-eyed Zhu said.

Born in Los Angeles, California, to a Chinese immigrant family, Zhu gave up her American citizenship when she competed for China in 2018. She also changed her name from Beverley Zhu to Zhu Yi. However, she faced immense criticism for not speaking fluent Chinese. On Sunday, one Weibo user stated: Please let her learn Chinese first before she talks about patriotism.

Other users also took a dig at Zhu's allegedly privileged family background. Zhu Songchun, Zhu's father, is an award-winning artificial intelligence scientist who joined Peking University from the University of California in 2020.

Athletes representing China have always faced backlash for poor performances, as the Chinese government continues to put huge pressure to increase the medals tally at the Olympics in a bid to signify national strength. Zhu is among those handfuls of foreign-born athletes recruited by China in recent years to boost their medal count at the Winter Olympics. However, the attack against her signifies what such athletes face to compete under the Chinese flag.

However, the attack on Zhu Yi stands in stark contrast to the massive popularity of a skiing prodigy, California-born Eileen Gu. The 18-year-old, who is also competing for China at the Beijing Winter Olympics, has charmed China with her fluent Mandarin and familiarity with Chinese culture. In many ways, Eileen has become the unofficial face of the Winter Olympics, having been used by the state media to promote the games. She is also part of several advertisements for Chinese brands.

China's teen skiing sensation Eileen Gu made her Olympic debut on Monday and survived a fall in qualification to make it through to the women's freeski big air competition finals. Before her debut, Gu, who has 1.9 million followers on Weibo, was trending with the hashtag "Eileen Gu's first show" with more than 300 million views.