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Lars Hamer

Kit Pingyu Zanelli was 13 months old when she was adopted by an American family after her biological parents wrapped her in a blanket and left her under a bridge in Wuwei, in China’s northwestern province of Gansu.
Growing up in Summit, New Jersey, a town of 22,000 people, with her adoptive parents and three siblings, she initially had little interest in her Chinese heritage.
Then last December, she received a telephone call from the coach of China’s lacrosse team, asking if she wanted to represent her birth country. Eight months later, she is China’s star player at the World Lacrosse Women’s U20 Championship in Hong Kong.
“It’s my first time back in China, and it’s been a very amazing, surreal, insane experience and very emotional,” Zanelli, 19, said.

“It’s crazy growing up in a family of white people and people who aren’t of my culture, and then coming back here with them. It’s insane and just the most amazing experience ever.”
Four of the Chinese under-20 team were adopted by families in the United States and Canada, using an agency that finds homes for babies abandoned in China.
The four flew to Hong Kong together: Zanelli, Molly Yundong Malone, Sara Junlan Curley, and Charlotte Liangchu Sawicki, who helped recruit Zanelli.
American adoptive families have been in the stands, waving Chinese flags and shouting “jiayou” – Mandarin for “add oil”, the Chinese expression of encouragement.
“We have three biological children, and always wanted to have a big family, and then we had a daughter who was stillborn,” Zanelli’s mother, Ann, said. “We had room in our hearts for more, and there was a family in our church that had adopted.”
China’s introduction of a one-child policy in 1979 led to some families abandoning babies. Orphanages had an influx of girls, in particular, given up by families who wanted a boy.

Ann, a school nurse, travelled to Beijing with husband Matt to collect a baby who orphanage staff believed had been placed under the nearby bridge so she would be found.
Matt is a lacrosse coach and Kit’s two brothers played at collegiate level. “She was much better than them,” Ann said.
“We had a court in the backyard. She picked up Chris’ stick, and I said, ‘Did she just switch hands?’”
In lacrosse, players switch the stick between hands to evade defenders. Zanelli has been captured on Instagram bamboozling opponents in Hong Kong with precisely that trick, which is apt, because the photo sharing platform played a vital role in how she came to be there.












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One way to fast-track China’s progress in lacrosse is to be proactive to find the likes of Zanelli, who represents Ohio State University and was rated among New Jersey’s top players.
Canadian Ted Sawicki coaches China’s senior and under-20 teams. His adopted daughter Charlotte, already recruited, spotted Zanelli and contacted her via IG.
“We’re relying on North Americans to carry this team, but the hope is the country doesn’t have to do that [in future],” he said.
Zanelli said she enjoyed seeing her Chinese roots up close for the first time through her teammates.
“There is a bit of a language barrier – we don’t speak any Chinese and there are some who don’t speak English,” she said. “It’s amazing to see the girls who speak both translating.”

Ted Sawicki hopes the Chinese Americans and Canadians can raise the standard of those in their motherland.
“We have half from China, because you’ll never grow the game if you don’t expose the mainland kids,” he said. “Some, like Kit, had never thought about [playing for China] until I gave her a call.”
Underlining North America’s status as a hotbed of lacrosse talent, Thursday’s semi-finals saw the US thrash Australia 33-1 and Canada rout Japan 17-2. The final is on Saturday.


World Lacrosse Super Sixes: Hong Kong confident about hosting rights as LA 2028 approaches

Hong Kong’s men guaranteed best-ever finish at World Lacrosse Box Championships in US

World Lacrosse Women’s U20 Championship: US confirm status as world’s best in one-sided final

World Lacrosse Women’s U20 Championship: China prove ‘best of the rest’, Hong Kong falter

Lacrosse

China-US divide bridged as adopted kids play lacrosse for motherland – thanks to Instagram

Kit Pingyu Zanelli (right) in action for China at the World Lacrosse Women’s U20 Championship. Photo: HKCLA

Kit Pingyu Zanelli representing China at the world U20 championship in Hong Kong. Photo: HKCLA

Sara Junlan Curley (right), another of the four spotted in North America and now playing for China. Photo: HKCLA

China’s players gather for a team talk at the world U20 championship at Hong Kong Football Club. Photo: HKCLA

Paris Olympics: China’s best overseas Games and rivalry with US set scene for LA in 2028

China’s Li Wenwen celebrates gold in the women’s +81kg weightlifting on the final day of the Games. Photo: dpa

Pan Zhanle (left) inspired China to gold in swimming’s men’s 4x100m medley relay. Photo: Reuters

Hong Kong’s Cheung Ka-long won gold to repeat his exploits in Tokyo in 2021. Photo: AP

Wu Yanni, in the 100m hurdles, typified China’s showing in track and field. Photo: Xinhua

China urges US to ensure Olympic athletes treated fairly at future Games

Gene Sykes, president of the US Olympic and Paralympic committee, presents Salt Lake City’s bid to host the 2034 Winter Games during a meeting in Paris on July 24. Photo: AP

Chinese Olympic Committee chair Gao Zhidan has called for the US to ensure a “safe and smooth competition environment for all athletes, including those from China”. Photo: Handout

Paris Olympics: diving champion Cao Yuan backs China to fend off US in medal scrap

Cao Yuan in action in diving’s men’s 10m platform final. Photo: Reuters

Noah Williams (right) expected China to sustain their global diving dominance. Photo: Xinhua. 

Cao’s gold was his fourth in four Olympics and completed a perfect Games for China divers. Photo: Xinhua

China population timeline 1949-2022: how has a demographic crisis emerged?

Last year, China’s population fell by 850,000 to 1.4118 billion as mothers had 9.56 million babies last year, compared with 10.41 million total deaths. Photo: AP

Last year, China’s population fell by 850,000 to 1.4118 billion as mothers had 9.56 million babies last year, compared with 10.41 million total deaths. Photo: EPA-EFE

China population: officials punished after allowing a family to violate one-child policy by having 15 children

Chinese officials have been punished for allowing a couple to have 15 children over two decades. Photo: Baidu

Fathered 15 children in breach of China’s strict population control laws. Photo: Baidu

Authorities said the woman had not been sold or trafficked and the children were all healthy. Photo: Baidu

Sport

Other Sport

Four teens who left China as babies are representing their country of birth in Hong Kong – cheered on by their American adoptive parents


Four teens who left China as babies are representing their country of birth in Hong Kong – cheered on by their American adoptive parents.


US-China relations

World Lacrosse Women's U20 Championship