American-born Chinese figure skater Zhu Yi had her second tumble of the 2022 Olympics.
Zhu burst into tears on Monday after falling during the women’s free skate, the final event of the team figure skating competition. The 19-year-old, who relinquished her US citizenship in 2018 to compete for China at the Olympics, couldn’t complete a triple-flip and landed on the ice after nailing her first two jumps. Her fourth jump was also unsuccessful.
During the women’s short program team event on Sunday, Zhu finished with the lowest score after failing to land a jump and falling during her opening combination. She received widespread criticism for her performance on the Chinese social media platform Weibo, which is the Chinese equivalent of Twitter.
After her crash, which dropped China from third place in the team event to fifth, “Zhu Yi has fallen” began trending on Weibo. Many condemned Zhu because she does not speak fluent Mandarin and questioned why she was selected for the team instead of a Chinese-born skater. According to CNN, the hashtag rapidly received around 200 million views.
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Zhu was born in Los Angeles to Chinese immigrant parents. Her family has since relocated back to China after her father started a job as a scientist at Peking University in Beijing.
China finished fifth in the team event. The Russian Olympic Committee clinched a gold medal followed by the United States with silver and a bronze win for Japan.
