American snowboarder Tessa Maud Photo: IC

 

Trending topics on Chinese social media platforms are not only focusing on athletes who won gold medals at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics such as Gu Ailing and Nathan Chen but also foreign athletes who won the hearts of Chinese people. 

US snowboarder Tessa Maud is one of them. 

On her last day in China, Maud shared a video on social media saying she is so sad as she was leaving China and she was going to cry on the plane. Her videos went viral on Chinese social media after she caught a heartfelt moment at the opening ceremony of the Games showing a Chinese volunteer saying to her "welcome to China" with sweet and kind gesture. 

Some Chinese media commented that although she did not claim any medal, she is indeed one of the favorite foreign athletes, as some Chinese netizens said. From day one, Maud used her vlogs to document her life in Beijing, especially her favorite Chinese food. Maud and her teammates also used chopsticks when eating Chinese food such as Kung Pao chicken, roasted duck and fried rice. "Everything is so good," Maud said in one of her videos. 

Maud left China on Saturday. The hashtag "she didn't win a medal, but succeeded to win the love of Chinese netizens" on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo had been viewed more than 100 million times as of Sunday.

Many Chinese netizens left several messages on Maud's last video in China wishing her a safe trip home and good luck. One netizen said hopefully Maud could travel to China again after the pandemic, and another one commended her love for China. 

Such affection to China and heartfelt interaction with Chinese volunteers also attracted the attention of Chinese diplomats. Zhao Lijian, spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, also shared her story at a routine press conference recently, saying that he watched the vlog and was touched by her.  

Such a story of warmth and friendship is a stark contrast to narratives pushed by some Western media, which have been covering China in biased ways, slandering the image of the country. 

US freestyle skiing athlete Aaron Blunck said during the latest briefing that China has done a "stellar job" with COVID-19 protocols for the Winter Olympics, adding that "being stateside you heard some pretty bad media (regarding COVID) and that is completely false."