China’s ‘glasses flyer’ Xu sets pulses racing with ‘nerdy’ look in 110m hurdles
- Fans ask if Xu Zhuoyi took wrong flight and was meant to represent country at Maths Olympiad
Sporting a charmingly “nerdy” look, Xu Zhuoyi won over fans at home in China as he dashed into Thursday’s 110 metres hurdles semi-final.
With his bookish demeanour and complete with glasses, Xu transformed into a blur of speed on the track, surging forward in the waning moments of his heat to finish first.
But it wasn’t his result that became the talk of the town – rather it was the endearing guise of the “glasses flyer”.
Fans marvelled at how Xu’s glasses remained perfectly in place as he cleared the hurdles, with some quipping that he mistakenly entered the wrong Olympics.
“He took the wrong flight instead of Math Olympiad he flew to Paris?” one wrote on X.
Others likened him to engineers and physicists and played on formulas like “E=110m”.
“Brilliant physicist who is also brilliant in athletics,” another wrote on X.
