Fu Yuanhui tells the world she’s on her period after mediocre performance in swimming relay

Superstar Chinese swimmer Fu Yuanhui has charmed the globe this Olympics with her incredibly candid and adorable post-race reactions. She was no less forthright yesterday, revealing to the whole world that she is on her period.
Fu’s earlier interviews have made her into an online sensation. Her funny facial expressions have become an “emoji package” and her Weibo account has gone from 100,000 followers to nearly 6 millions in less than a week. Her fans like her because of her refreshing goofiness, posting self-deprecating pics or vids, reminding everyone that athletes are humans too.
Like this myriad of expressions:

Or this embarrassing moment:

In an interview right after getting a personal best time of 58.95 seconds in the 100 meter backstroke event, Fu declared that she had used her “prehistoric powers” to get such an impressive result. But now, it looks like the power of nature is greater than those prehistoric powers.
In the women’s 4x100m medley relay, Fu Yuanhui and her three teammates narrowly missed a medal, finishing in fourth place. They finished the race in 3 minutes 55.18 seconds, just 0.17 seconds slower than Denmark. Afterward, CCTV interviewed the four swimmers, who all expressed disappointment with their performance.

Fu was the last to be interviewed and began squatting on the ground. She stood up and apologized to her teammates for her poor performance. Noticing her obvious pain, the interview asked, “Your stomach must hurt a lot right now?”
“My period came last night and I’m really tired right now,” Fu replied. “But this isn’t an excuse, I still did not swim as well as I should have.”
Once again, netizens on Weibo have applauded Fu her candidness.
“The first athlete that admitted she is on her period,” @爆炸头_望春风 wrote.
“Now everyone knows Fu’s menstruation cycle,” @浅爱淡白阳光 wrote.
“Wow she still has to swim when she’s on her period? This is heartbreaking,” @枫之LIN wrote.
Watch the full interview below:

By Sarah Lin
[Video via Miaopai]