In a recent Los Angeles Times article, columnist Barbara Demick examines China’s methods for cultivating Olympic athletes. It’s a very interesting read as it contrasts the American sentiment of fun and good sportsmanship to the Chinese attitude of duty and dominance.
The only mother on China’s team, Xian Dongmei, told reporters after she won her gold medal in judo that she had not seen her 18-month-old daughter in one year, monitoring the girl’s growth only by webcam. Another gold medalist, weightlifter Cao Lei, was kept in such seclusion training for the Olympics that she wasn’t told her mother was dying. She found out only after she had missed the funeral.
Chen Ruolin, a 15-year-old diver, was ordered to skip dinner for one year to keep her body sharp as a razor slicing into the water. The girl weighs 66 pounds.
“To achieve Olympic glory for the motherland is the sacred mission assigned by the Communist Party central,” is how Chinese Sports Minister Liu Peng put it at the beginning of the Games.
“You have no control over your own life. Coaches are with you all the time. People are always watching you, the doctors, even the chefs in the cafeteria. You have no choice but to train so as not to let the others down,” gymnast Chen Yibing told Chinese reporters last week after winning a gold medal on the rings. He said he could count the amount of time he’d spent with his parents “by hours . . . very few hours.”
After Beijing was chosen in 2001 to host this summer’s Games, China’s sports authorities launched Project 119 (after the number of medals available in track and field, canoeing, sailing, rowing and swimming that were not Chinese strengths) and assigned promising young athletes to focus exclusively on these sports, some of which they’d never heard of.
Of course, a federal government having its hand in athletic development is nothing new; the Soviet Union and East Germany are just two examples. However, with these Olympics being the most widely watched in history and its minute-by-minute coverage being scrutinized by a host of international columnists and bloggers on the Internet, even the smallest off-color story can cause a worldwide ripple. China, for all its faults, hosted the most sensational Olympics in recent years. We will never forget the impossibly beautiful opening and closing ceremonies, the money and effort they spent conforming the architecture of their capital, and the hospitality they showed to each athlete. Still, it’s the performances that matter, and China proved their dominance in more events than any other country – even the United States.
As this article shows, this success was planned and expected. While reading, I was not in awe of the methods employed by the Chinese government, but was surprised by the “what-can-you-do” attitude of its athletes.
Everyone watches the Olympics differently. I rooted for Michael Phelps to break Mark Spitz’s record; I followed the Redeem Team to their gold-medal success; I cheered Nastia Liukin on in the all-around gymnastics competition. What I noticed was that I was throwing my support around specific athletes and teams based just as much on their individual stories as on their American nationality. For some reason, the medal count never felt important. I’ve always assumed that Americans would dominate in some sports and other nations would dominate in others—seemed like a fairly rational outlook. Yet, upon hearing rumors of China’s totalitarian policy towards its athletes and its submission of underage female gymnasts, the medal race suddenly became a huge issue. I found myself taking interest in sports I’d never cared for: rhythm gymnastics, shot put, rowing. I wanted to know the odds and needed to see where we could edge China.
This acute and misdirected patriotism gradually waned, however, with the arrival of Usain Bolt. Watching him run, I couldn’t have cared less which nation he represented. A gold (or three) would go to Jamaica, not the United States or China, and so be it. Those races were about Bolt and Bolt only. We now know who the fastest man in the world is. (To think, at one point I thought it was Ricky Henderson.)
I loved watching these Olympics. Aside from the events, I appreciated that NBC’s coverage focused on China’s culture and just how much they cherished hosting these Games. You got the sense that its citizens were familiar with each athlete, and that they cheered and rejoiced each individual triumph.
Obviously, we live in a country where its government doesn’t delegate the path of its athletes – our constitution practically forbids it. Most Americans watch the Olympics because of an ideal, not because of a medal count. I love the fact that athletes I’ve never heard of will perform unprecedented feats in front of an international audience. If one of them happened to be an American, then I’d be proud; if they happened to be a foreigner, then I’d be congratulatory.
Here’s something to chew on in the aftermath of these Olympics: competition in sport can be an antidote for inhumane catastrophe. Relating this theory to European soccer, American novelist Paul Auster wrote:
“Passions among the spectators run high. They wave their country’s flag, they sing patriotic songs, they insult the supporters of the other team. Americans might look at these antics and think they’re all in good fun, but they’re not. They’re serious business. But at least the mock battles waged by the surrogate armies in short pants do not threaten to increase the population of widows and fatherless children…As long as countries square off against each other on the playing field, we will be able to count the casualties on the fingers of our two hands. A generation ago, they were tallied in the millions.”
I believe this mindset is similar to that of the Olympics. Competition that takes place in the Olympic arena can be viewed as a substitute for political or martial strife. As is witnessed in this article, countries will choose to go about this in different ways. China has a heavy-handed approach while the United States utilizes a free-market system; these are vastly different, but equally successful. Even in sports, these tactics are representative of these nations as a whole. Either way, we should be thankful that these “winners” are determined in athletics rather than on the battlefield.
Two-time gold medalist (and possibly the best volleyball player in the world) Misty May-Treanor underwent surgery on the Achilles tendon that she tore while practicing for “Dancing With the Stars.”
