Canadian-born Chinese goalie “not allowed” to speak English to Olympic media
Kimberly Newell, a goalie for China’s Olympic women’s ice hockey team and native of Vancouver, wasn’t allowed to speak English in a press availability at the Beijing Olympics earlier this week.
The 26-year-old, who is going by the name Jiaying Zhou while playing for Team China, answered questions in Mandarin before a reporter asked if she’d field questions in English.
“She’s not allowed to speak English,” an interpreter said following China’s 2-1 shootout win against Japan on Sunday, according to Reuters. “I’ll try to translate for her.”
This is despite the fact that Newell speaks English fluently.
Newell, who began playing hockey in Vancouver at five years old and played for the Burnaby Winter Club before attending Princeton University, lists English, Mandarin Chinese, and French as languages spoken on her Olympic bio.
Asked what her goals were for the competition by a reporter, Newell responded in Mandarin before the interpreter replied.
Newell, who was named to the ECAC All-Academic Team four times (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016) and graduated with a degree in economics and finance, was a gold medalist with Canada at the 2013 Under-18 World Championship, too.
She has spent the past three seasons playing for KRS Vanke Rays in Russia in Shenzhen.
China’s women’s ice hockey team did not qualify for quarterfinal action at the Olympics after finishing ninth in the round-robin.
Newell, one of several players on the team with Canadian or American citizenship, finished the tournament with a 2-1-0 record with a 1.31 goals-against average and .955 save percentage.
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