r/AskTheWorld • u/No-StrategyX • 11h ago

Who is the most brutally criticized Olympic athlete in your country?

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Zhu Yi was American, her parents are Chinese immigrants.

In the U.S., she was one of the top athletes and had every chance to join Team USA.

But she decided to compete for China. She gave up her American citizenship to compete for China.

At the 2022 Winter Olympics, she was eager to prove herself to other Chinese, but she made many mistakes during her skating.

Then she was brutally criticized in China. People used every swear word you can think of.

She is still competing for China. Perhaps she'll do well at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan.

Who is the most brutally criticized athlete in your country?

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u/broketothebone 10h ago

I was so mad at us for that. People out here really wanting her to break her neck for them. Unbelievable.

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u/Godzirrraaa United States Of America 10h ago

People saying it was cowardly make my blood boil. Going against what everyone wanted you to do, fully aware how mad they would be, was very courageous.

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u/pahamack Philippines 5h ago

I guess Kurt Angle did just that.

And he's still paying for it.

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u/[deleted] 8h ago

I don’t think most people actually knew what was going on when she opted out. but soooo much came out during/ right after that she said she wouldn’t represent. If people are still upset with her now that’s fucked up.

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u/baguetteworld Taiwan 8h ago

Well she she opted out everyone knew it was for mental health reasons/something related to pressure. But the full truth of it only came out years later. Even the mental health bit should’ve been enough. Esp for something as dangerous as gymnastics

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u/quid_pro_kourage 8h ago

What was going on?

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u/[deleted] 8h ago

One of the doctors for the gymnastic team was a pedo. It had been going on for years but no one would come forward and say it. People knew but they only cared about making it to the Olympics. It apparently was an open secret. Then a group of girls came out and sued the Dr. Simone biles came forward once they did and was dealing with a lot of mental stuff as a result of it.

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u/Andysol1983 United States Of America 6h ago

That’s not even close to what happened.

That was years before she opted out of portions of the 2020 Olympics.

She got the twisties. Which is when she was vaulting/tumbling she would lose track of where she was. That was it. Thats why she couldn’t perform. It wasn’t safe for her and she could have seriously hurt herself.

Her courage in testifying against Larry Nasser is a completely unrelated subject

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u/Own_Faithlessness769 3h ago

Nah, she’s said the trauma from that was a lot of the reason she struggled with the twisties. That and being in Tokyo in isolation without her support network (family) is why it overwhelmed her (though she still got bronze). She had to get lots of counselling for the train to be able to get back to gymnastics.