Mariah Bell had been ready for her flip to skate in Beijing.
She wasn’t chosen for the group occasion, and the U.S. group gained silver final week. Then Nathan Chen, considered one of her coaching companions in California, gained gold within the males’s occasion. For all of these performances, she was only a fan within the crowd, cheering on her teammates.
Lastly, within the quick program on Tuesday, Bell, the reigning U.S. nationwide champion, obtained her probability to do what she got here right here for.
Whereas she fell on the second bounce of her triple-triple mixture, she shortly composed herself to drift properly by the remainder of her program. For as soon as, she had a cheering part of her personal: A raucous, although tiny, group of followers at one finish of the world screamed her identify as she stepped off the ice. She scored 65.38 factors to finish up the most effective in her group and second total.
The final skater of the group was Beverly Zhu, a 19-year-old who was born and raised in the US however is skating for China as Zhu Yi. It’s arduous to think about how a lot strain she should have felt.
After she fell within the quick program of the group occasion, the hashtag #ZhuYiFellDown was considered greater than 200 million occasions on Weibo, a preferred Chinese language social media platform, as commenters referred to as her “shameless,” “rotten” and an “embarrassment.” However on Tuesday, the followers gave her a heat spherical of cheers and shouted, “Go!” in Chinese language.
On her first bounce, she nicked the ice along with her skate after touchdown, however managed to energy by the remainder of her skate, rising extra assured as her program unfolded. A lot of the crowd applauded and waved Chinese language flags afterward.
Ready for her rating, she breathed deeply and sat completely nonetheless. To complete out the group, she was given 53.44 factors, for ninth place total.
