Zhu Yi, who gave up US citizenship to compete for China, slammed after poor show at Beijing Winter Olympics

American-born Chinese athlete Zhu Yi has been facing intense criticism of Chinese social media platform Weibo after her disappointing show at the ongoing Winter Olympics 2022 in Beijing, China. Zhu Yi had given up her US citizenship and changed her name from Beverly Zu to Zhu Yi, in order to compete for the host nation at the Beijing Winter Games.

In what was a forgetful debut for the 19-year-old, Zhu Yi fell twice during the women's short program team event at the Beijing Winter Games. The figure skater had started her performance amidst cheers at the Beijing Indoor Stadium, however, she was reduced to tears on the ice court by the end of it.

Zhu failed to land a jump and fell down in the opening combination before messing up another jump in the short program. After falling twice, she managed a score o only 47.03 as China suffered a jolt in the team event. China slipped from the third spot to the fifth spot after Zhu's disappointing show.

The 19-year-old was seen in tears after her debut performance but she was not spared by the Chinese public on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter. 'Zhu Yi has fallen' started trending on the social media platform soon after her disappointing show as the US-born figure skater was subjected to intense criticism with some even questioning her loyalty towards China.

"Please let her learn Chinese first, before she talks about patriotism," wrote a Weibo user, as per Dailymail.UK.

"Zhu Yi, how ridiculous your performance is! How dare you skate for China? You cannot even hold a candle to an amateur," said another.

While there was immense backlash from all corners, some also offered support to the US-born Chinese figure skater and condemned the criticism directed towards her.

Zhu was born in Los Angeles to Chinese parents and was named Beverly. She started figure skating at the tender age of seven and decided to change her name and give up her American citizenship after winning the novice division Figure Skating Championships in California, US.

She started a new life in China with the name Zhu Yi and subsequently secured a spot in the Chinese figure skating team for the ongoing Beijing Winter Olympics 2022. She was clearly under pressure ahead of her debut at the Winter Games and said she was 'upset and embarrassed' with her performance.

"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 the media, as per Dailymail.UK.

"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.