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Zhu Yi (figure skater)

In this Chinese name, the family name is Zhu.
Zhu Yi
Zhu at 2019 Cup of China
Native name朱易
BornBeverly Zhu
(2002-09-19) September 19, 2002 (age 22)
Westwood, California, United States
HometownEncino, California
Height1.65 m (5 ft 5 in)
Figure skating career
Country China (2018–)
 United States (until 2018)
CoachTong Jian
Began skating2010

Zhu Yi (Chinese: 朱易; pinyin: Zhū Yì; born Beverly Zhu on September 19, 2002) is an American-born Chinese figure skater who competes in women's singles. She has competed in the final segment at two ISU Championships, placing 13th at the 2020 Four Continents Championships and 22nd at 2020 World Junior Championships.

She won the 2018 U.S. national novice title before representing China internationally.[2]

Personal life

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Zhu was born on September 19, 2002, in Westwood, Los Angeles, California, United States.[3] Her parents, Cui Jie and Zhu Songchun, immigrated to the United States from China. Her father was a computer expert and professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, before moving to Peking University.[2][4]

Zhu reportedly renounced her U.S. citizenship in 2018 after deciding to compete for China.[5][6] She also changed her name from Beverly Zhu to Zhu Yi.[7] Zhu is one of a number of foreign-born athletes who chose to become naturalised Chinese citizens or who gained permanent residency status in China to compete at the 2022 Winter Olympics.[8][9]

She currently resides in Beijing and is a student at the Peking University. Since 2023, Zhu has been in a relationship with Olympic champion snowboarder, Su Yiming, who she met during the 2022 Winter Olympics. In addition to figure skating, she also enjoys playing the piano, dancing, calligraphy, and painting.[10][11][12]

Career

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Early career

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Zhu started skating at seven years old after her mother's friend's daughter started lessons.[13] She narrowly missed qualifying to the U.S. National Championships in 2016 and 2017 after finishing fifth at Sectionals both seasons.[14]

2017–2018 season

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Zhu placed second at the 2017–18 Pacific Coast Sectionals to qualify to the U.S. National Championships for the first time. She won the novice title in her Nationals debut at the 2018 U.S. Championships with a record score of 167.69 points.[15]

2018–2019 season

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Zhu switched to representing her parents' native country of China in September 2018 as part of the country's "Morning Road" initiative to recruit top athletes leading up to the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.[2] She trained with five Chinese ice dancers in a group led by Chen Lu and five foreign coaches up through December.[2]

In 2019, she received Chinese citizenship and began to represent China officially in figure skating events.[16] Zhu placed fourth at the 2019 Chinese Championships in Harbin at the end of December.[17][dead link‍] In February, she competed at the Sofia Trophy, where she won the bronze medal.[18]

2019–2020 season

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Zhu was assigned to her first Grand Prix event, 2019 Cup of China, where she finished 11th.[19] She then placed 14th at 2019 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb, 8th at the 2020 Mentor Toruń Cup, 13th at the 2020 Four Continents Championships, and 22nd at the 2020 World Junior Championships.[20]

2020–2021 season

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Zhu was assigned to compete at the 2020 Skate Canada International, but the event was canceled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.[21]

2021–2022 season

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Zhu was assigned to compete at the 2021 Cup of China.[22] The event was canceled on August 17 and subsequently replaced by the 2021 Gran Premio d'Italia, to which Zhu was reassigned.[23] She began the season at the 2021 CS Asian Open Trophy, the Olympic test event, finishing in seventh place.[20] She was ninth at the Gran Premio with a career-best score of 171.25 points,[24] saying afterward "I didn't do everything, but I met my goals."[25]

Zhu was chosen as the lone women's singles entry for the Chinese Olympic team over Chen Hongyi.[26] Her selection drew criticism from Chinese skating fans, who felt stars like Chen and Texas-born Ashley Lin would be better suited.[27] She began the 2022 Winter Olympics as the Chinese entry in the women's segments of the Olympic team event. With the women as the last of the four short program segments, the Chinese team was in third place going in, behind only the United States and ROC. Zhu fell on her jump combination, crashing into the boards of the rink, and singled a planned triple loop. As a result, she placed last in the segment with 47.03 points (below her season best of 60 points),[28] dropping the Chinese team from third place to a tie for fifth.[29] Afterward, she said that she was "upset and a little embarrassed." In the free skate, Zhu fell twice and again placed last in the segment. China finished fifth in the team event.[30][31]

The performances drew considerable criticism from Weibo users, who also questioned her privileged background and family ties, lack of fluency in Mandarin Chinese, and selection over a native athlete.[32][4] False rumours also spread that she would rather be interviewed by CNN than Chinese media.[33] Following this, the microblogging company took steps to censor the backlash towards her and related hashtags.[34][35][36] In the women's event later on, Zhu finished 26th in the short program and did not advance to the free skate.[26][37] The performance however drew cheers and applause from the crowd midway through, and reportedly more sympathy on Weibo.[38] In a Chinese media interview afterwards, Zhu said there might have been online comments that affected her at first, but she later adjusted.[39]

2022–2023 season

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Zhu did not compete internationally during this season.[20]

2023–2024 season

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Prior to the season, it was announced that Zhu had begun training in Beijing full-time and that former pair skater, Tong Jian, had become her new coach.[40] She returned to international competition at the 2023 Cup of China, where she finished tenth.[41]

At the 2024 Chinese Championships, Zhu came in eighteenth place. Despite this placement, Zhu was selected to compete at the 2024 Four Continents Championships, where she finished sixteenth. Zhu then ended the season by placing thirteenth at the 2024 National Winter Games.[20]

2024–2025 season

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Zhu began the season by finishing eighth at the 2024 CS Denis Ten Memorial Challenge. She then went on to compete at the 2024 Cup of China, where she finished ninth. One week later, Zhu would finish sixth at the 2024 Chinese Championships.[20]

Programs

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Season Short program Free skating Exhibition
2024–2025
[42]
2023–2024
[40][43]
  • The Sound of Falling Snow
    by Lu Hu
2022–2023
[44]
2021–2022
[45]
2020–2021
[46]
2019–2020
[3]
2018–2019
[47]

Competitive highlights

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GP: Grand Prix; CS: Challenger Series

For China

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International[20]
Event 18–19 19–20 21–22 23–24 24-25
Olympics 26th
Four Continents 13th 16th
GP Cup of China 11th C 10th 9th
GP Italy 9th
GP Skate America
GP Skate Canada
CS Asian Open 7th
CS Denis Ten 8th
CS Golden Spin 14th
Toruń Cup 8th
International: Junior[20]
Junior Worlds 22nd
Sofia Trophy 3rd
National[20]
Chinese Champ. 4th 18th 6th
National Winter Games 13th
Team Events[20]
Olympics 5th T
TBD = Assigned; WD = Withdrew; C = Event cancelled

Detailed results

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Senior level

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2024–25 season
Date Event SP FS Total
November 28–December 1, 2024 2024 Chinese Championships 8
58.25 		7
114.71 		6
172.96
November 22–24, 2024 2024 Cup of China 10
58.36 		9
107.68 		9
166.04
October 3–6, 2024 2024 CS Denis Ten Memorial Challenge 8
55.45 		9
100.02 		8
155.47
2023–24 season
Date Event SP FS Total
February 1–4, 2024 2024 Four Continents Championships 15
52.77 		19
86.75 		16
139.52
December 22–24, 2023 2023 Chinese Figure Skating Championships 18
46.72 		18
84.81 		18
131.53
November 10–12, 2023 2023 Cup of China 11
50.96 		10
103.62 		10
154.58
2021–22 season
Date Event SP FS Total
February 15–17, 2022 2022 Winter Olympics 26
53.44 		— 26
53.44
February 4–7, 2022 2022 Winter Olympics — Team event 10
47.03 		5
91.41 		5T
November 5–7, 2021 2021 Gran Premio d'Italia 8
60.00 		9
111.25 		9
171.25
October 13–17, 2021 2021 CS Asian Open Trophy 5
52.88 		6
94.50 		7
147.38
2019–20 season
Date Event SP FS Total
March 2–8, 2020 2020 World Junior Championships 24
50.43 		22
81.99 		22
132.42
February 4–9, 2020 2020 Four Continents Championships 12
55.53 		14
99.88 		13
155.41
January 7–12, 2020 2020 Mentor Toruń Cup 10
41.10 		5
79.93 		8
121.03
December 4–7, 2019 2019 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb 13
49.23 		13
93.87 		14
143.10
November 8–10, 2019 2019 Cup of China 9
53.19 		11
86.44 		11
139.63

Junior level

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2018–19 season
Date Event Level SP FS Total
February 5–10, 2019 2019 Sofia Trophy Junior 3
47.59 		3
88.05 		3
135.64
December 29–30, 2018 2019 Chinese Championships Senior 4
54.36 		5
91.71 		4
146.07

References

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  1. ^ Viya (January 4, 2018). "Bulgarian coach with two winners at 2018 U.S. Figure Skating Championships". Beauty in Sport.
  2. ^ a b c d Palmer, Dan (September 26, 2018). "American-born figure skater joins Chinese squad with one eye on Beijing 2022". Inside the Games.
  3. ^ a b "Yi ZHU: 2019/2020". International Skating Union. Archived from the original on May 6, 2020.
  4. ^ a b Gan, Nectar (February 6, 2022). "US-born figure skater Zhu Yi under attack after fall on Olympic debut for China". CNN.
  5. ^ Jason Owens (2022-02-07). "China's Zhu Yi leaves ice in tears after falling again in team competition". MSN News, Yahoo! Sports. Archived from the original on 2022-02-28. Retrieved 2022-03-01.
  6. ^ Abreu, Danielle (February 7, 2022). "US-born Figure Skater Zhu Yi Slammed Online After Falling in Olympic Debut for China". NBC Sports.
  7. ^ "Olympic figure skater who gave up US citizenship to compete for China blasted on social media". MSN News, USA Today. 2022-02-07. Archived from the original on 2022-03-01. Retrieved 2022-03-01.
  8. ^ Zuo, Mandy (July 9, 2019). "Can China win the World Cup with a handful of naturalized players?". Inkstone News. US-born Beverly Zhu, who won the 2018 US Figure Skating Championships, triggered a heated discussion in China after she joined the Chinese team last year, which means she can compete for the host nation at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.
  9. ^ "US Olympic Hopeful Says She Will Ski for China in 2022". Sixth Tone. June 10, 2019. Gu isn't the first athlete to 'become Chinese,' either officially or unofficially, in recent months. ... And last September, 17-year-old American figure skater Beverly Zhu enrolled in China's national figure skating program to vie for a roster spot at the 2022 Winter Olympics.
  10. ^ "金童玉女!苏翊鸣朱易牵手恋情曝光,19岁冬奥冠军爱上21岁花滑女神". Sohu. Sohu. Retrieved 6 January 2025.
  11. ^ "中国花滑女神朱易与奥运冠军男友公开恋情，甜蜜表白：爱你！". Sohu. Sohu. Retrieved 6 January 2025.
  12. ^ "花滑天才朱易：16岁获全美冠军，放弃美籍回国，还和苏翊鸣谈恋爱". 163. 163. Retrieved 6 January 2025.
  13. ^ 《风云会》朱易专访：代表中国参赛令人兴奋 很激动能有希望参加奥运会 [Fengyunhui Zhu Yi Interview: "Competing on behalf of China is very exciting. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to try for the Olympic Games"] (in Chinese). CCTV-5. March 21, 2019.
  14. ^ Zhu, Beverly (February 1, 2018). "dreams don't work unless you do" (Instagram). Archived from the original on 2021-12-25.
  15. ^ Jin, Vivian (January 22, 2018). "Bay Area skaters shine at annual U.S. Figure Skating Championships". Harker Aquila.
  16. ^ "美媒"笑话"朱易 谷爱凌回怼". Sina News, Guancha.cn. 2022-02-07. Archived from the original on 2022-03-01. Retrieved 2022-03-03.
  17. ^ "2018/2019 Chinese National Figure Skating Championships Results" (PDF). Chinese Skating Association. December 31, 2018.
  18. ^ "Sofia Trophy 2019: Junior Ladies Result". Bulgarian Skating Federation. February 9, 2019.
  19. ^ Xinhua (June 21, 2019). "Sui Wenjing/Han Cong, Jin Boyang lead China Cup figure skating nominations". China Daily.
  20. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Yi ZHU: Competition Results". International Skating Union.
  21. ^ "Skate Canada International in Ottawa cancelled as COVID-19 cases rise". CBC Sports. October 14, 2020.
  22. ^ "ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating 2021/22 - Women". International Skating Union. June 29, 2021.
  23. ^ "ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating - Cup of China 2021 Cancelled". International Skating Union. August 17, 2021.
  24. ^ "Mistake! In the figure skating team competition, Zhu Yi fell and scored only 47.03 points". Phoenix Television. 2022-02-06. Archived from the original on 2022-02-24. Retrieved 2022-03-03.
  25. ^ Slater, Paula (November 6, 2021). "Shcherbakova snags Gran Premio d'Italia title". Golden Skate.
  26. ^ a b Lewis, Danny (February 16, 2022). "Figure Skating: Zhu Yi on not giving up and learning all the time". International Olympic Committee.
  27. ^ Andrew McNicol (2022-02-11). "Who is Zhu Yi, the figure skater whose Winter Olympics dream became a nightmare?". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 2022-03-01.
  28. ^ "In the women's singles of the figure skating team competition, Zhu Yi made a mistake and fell and performed poorly". Sina Sports (in Chinese). 2022-02-06. Archived from the original on 2022-03-02. Retrieved 2022-03-03.
  29. ^ Slater, Paula (February 6, 2022). "ROC overtakes USA on Day 2 of Olympic Figure Skating Team Event". Golden Skate.
  30. ^ JASON OWENS (February 6, 2022). "China's Zhu Yi leaves ice in tears after falling again in team competition". AOL News, Yahoo! Sports. Archived from the original on February 28, 2022. Retrieved March 1, 2022.
  31. ^ "Figure skater Zhu Yi focused on 'coping mentally' after falling in team event at Winter Olympics". CNN. February 7, 2022.
  32. ^ Dou, Eva (February 7, 2022). "Chinese social media savages California-born skater Zhu Yi over competition falls". Washington Post.
  33. ^ "朱易拒绝中国媒体只接受CNN采访？假的". Phoenix Television. 2022-02-16. Archived from the original on 2022-02-24. Retrieved 2022-03-03.
  34. ^ Wermus, Katie (2022-02-08). "As China celebrates Eileen Gu, Weibo suspends accounts over another athlete". Newsweek. Archived from the original on 2022-02-28. Retrieved 2022-03-01.
  35. ^ "Censors step in after Weibo users savage Chinese figure-skater Zhu Yi over fall at Winter Olympics". abc.net.au. 2022-02-06. Retrieved 2022-02-13.
  36. ^ Lau, Jack (7 February 2022). "Zhu Yi falls again, cries during routine as online abuse intensifies". South China Morning Post.
  37. ^ Penny, Brandon (February 15, 2022). "As it happened: ROC, U.S. skaters star in women's short program". NBC Sports.
  38. ^ Hu, Krystal (2022-02-15). "Figure skating-With a smile, Zhu wins China's applause in redemption skate". Reuters. Retrieved 2022-03-01.
  39. ^ "Zhu Yi: The previous performance was a bit embarrassing, Jin Boyang has been making me happy". Guancha.cn, The Paper. 2022-02-15. Archived from the original on 2022-02-24. Retrieved 2022-03-03.
  40. ^ a b "Yi ZHU: 2023/2024 (1st FP)". International Skating Union. Archived from the original on November 11, 2023.
  41. ^ Slater, Paula (November 11, 2023). "Hana Yoshida captures first Grand Prix gold at Cup of China". Golden Skate. Retrieved November 12, 2023.
  42. ^ "Yi ZHU: 2024/2025". International Skating Union. Archived from the original on September 15, 2024.
  43. ^ "Yi ZHU: 2023/2024 (2nd FP)". International Skating Union. Archived from the original on March 12, 2024.
  44. ^ "Yi ZHU: 2022/2023". International Skating Union. Archived from the original on March 18, 2023.
  45. ^ "Yi ZHU: 2021/2022". International Skating Union. Archived from the original on October 31, 2021.
  46. ^ "Yi ZHU: 2020/2021". International Skating Union.
  47. ^ "Yi ZHU: 2018/2019". International Skating Union. Archived from the original on March 19, 2019.
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