For two days, social media users in China have been heaping scorn onto Beverly Zhu, a 19-year-old figure skater who was born and raised in the United States but competes for China under the name Zhu Yi.
The criticism began on Sunday, when the naturalized athlete fell during the women’s singles short program in the team event.
By that afternoon, the hashtag #ZhuYiFellDown had been viewed more than 200 million times on Weibo, a popular Chinese social media platform. Commenters called her “shameless,” “rotten” and an “embarrassment.”
In an unusual move, Weibo stepped in by Sunday evening to ban the hashtag.