Chinese Olympic Gold Medalist Gets Cyberbullied Because of His Teeth

Some fans however, went to Twitter, not to congratulate the athlete for his impressive win but to criticize his teeth. Yang’s teeth were displayed prominently after he gave a victorious scream following his victory. Other netizens also made fun of the swimmer’s attempt to throw back his swim cap at the stands, which ended up falling into the pool.

The tweets varied from attempts at humor to downright mean:

Some Twitter users refused to join the those who made fun of Yang and instead called them out for ‘bullying’ the swimmer.

“Making fun of Sun Yang’s teeth is not funny at all. There isn’t a prevalent dental awareness in China and in many developing countries,” wrote Heidi.

Some netizens view the online bashing  as a possible retaliation from Australian fans after Chinese Weibo users flooded Mack Horton’s twitter account with insults and criticisms. Earlier, the Australian swimmer made a statement against Sun Yang, calling the Chinese swimmer a “drug cheat.”