{"id":356544,"date":"2026-03-25T02:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T02:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/356544\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T02:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T02:42:09","slug":"olympic-diving-champion-zhang-jiaqi-defends-career-switch-says-she-has-to-find-new-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/356544\/","title":{"rendered":"Olympic diving champion Zhang Jiaqi defends career switch, says she has to \u2018find new job\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Olympic diving champion Zhang Jiaqi has hit back at critics who have labelled her career shift to live streaming as \u201cthe fall of a genius\u201d, asserting that financial independence is the ultimate freedom for women.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The 21-year-old retired in November after finishing 10th in the National Games 10m platform final, marking the end of a 15-year career and the start of a new life chapter.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Her live stream e-commerce debut a week later sparked an online backlash, with internet trolls accusing her of \u201cforgetting her roots\u201d and being \u201ceager for quick money\u201d after what they viewed as a hesitant performance.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cAfter retiring, I have to face the situation of finding a new job,\u201d Zhang said at a recent women\u2019s event featuring speakers from different backgrounds, adding that negative remarks would not affect her as she was earning her own living.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cThose comments are shackles others put on me,\u201d said Zhang, who sells products ranging from sunscreen and skincare to pyjamas and plush toys. \u201cI have done nothing wrong; why should I deny myself because of others\u2019 misconceptions?<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Zhang Jiaqi\u2019s debut live stream e-commerce session mixed reactions online. Photo: Screenshot\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/33afde56-4dfa-42da-8883-8284025d4679_ccd7927c.jpg\" title=\"Zhang Jiaqi\u2019s debut live stream e-commerce session mixed reactions online. Photo: Screenshot\"\/>Zhang Jiaqi\u2019s debut live stream e-commerce session mixed reactions online. Photo: Screenshot<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cFor any woman, economic freedom is the greatest freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Olympic diving champion Zhang Jiaqi has hit back at critics who have labelled her career shift to live&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,133854,54488,123191,105,135597,172876,172875],"class_list":["post-356544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-jilin-university","tag-national-games","tag-olympic","tag-sports","tag-tokyo-olympics","tag-wu-dajing","tag-zhang-jiaqi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}