In this week’s look at all the latest news in the build-up to the 2022 Olympics and elsewhere: Chinese swimmer gets ban of 4 years and 3 months at doping retrial Soccer star Li Ying comes out as lesbian IOC member hails China’s winter sports progress with some dubious stats Commemorative stamps released for 2022 … Continue reading Sun Yang Banned for 4+ Years, Will Miss Tokyo Olympics
Sun Yang is undoubtedly one of China’s top sports stars, in a bracket with tennis pioneer Li Na and perhaps badminton king Lin Dan as well. His commercial potential is huge, but he is his own worst enemy right now. Whereas Li’s image as a rebel, breaking free from the shackles of the state system, … Continue reading Chinese officials: Sun Yang’s return imminent
Sorry for the lack of posts (a few busy/sick days…), but I’m back – as is Sun Yang. The Chinese Olympic swimming champ has served his seven days in detention for driving without a license and is a free man once again, though is still banned from competition indefinitely and can’t even train with the … Continue reading Sun Yang’s veggie demands anger fellow inmates
Remember how the medal tally system at China’s National Games is ridiculous, with certain performances from nearly four years ago being converted into medals that actually count at this event? Well, this is what happens. According to the official rules for counting medals, swimming star Sun Yang has won 11 medals for Zhejiang, 10 of … Continue reading Sun Yang wins 10 golds, 1 bronze at National Games
As mentioned last week, I’ll still be looking at whatever Winter Olympic action crops up, plus all the developments on the road to Beijing 2022, but as we head into the summer months, other sports will also get a look in, with star swimmer Sun Yang and his retrial in a doping case getting top … Continue reading Setting Sun, Soccer Screwup, Ski Supremo & Stricken Sponsors
Sun Yang won his third individual gold medal at the FINA World Championships, adding the 1,500m title to his wins in the 400m and 800m. He kept pace with Canadian Ryan Cochrane for most of the race, and then blasted away in the final two lengths. It was well outside his own world record pace, … Continue reading Weekly Wrap: Golden Sun, missing mojos, and feng shui in the EPL
Chinese swimmer Sun Yang has been a naughty boy: partying, missing training, and (gasp) even spending time with a girl. Sun wasn’t happy after being fined and went into a sulk, demanding a new coach. He need look no further than the world’s most famous swimmer, Michael Phelps, for a case study. Phelps, too, got … Continue reading Sun may shine in Barcelona, but for how much longer?
Wow. Apologies for the slight delay in getting this out, but I needed to lie down in a cold, dark room after that frantic finish to the Olympics (and overdosing on Twitter). Going into the final day, we still didn’t know which team was going to come out on top of the medals table. But … Continue reading US Comeback Tops Strong Chinese Challenge in Tokyo
In this week’s Olympic round-up, I will go over all the golds that China has won so far, up to the end of Day 8. I’ll start with the golds (from most to least per sport), because that’s what China cares about, even if we get periodic messages from the leadership about moving away from … Continue reading China Still Out in Front After First Week at Tokyo Olympics
In this week’s Olympic round-up: Two early gold medals for China kick off Day 1 Chinese reaction to the Opening Ceremony Tentative start on the pitch for China A round-up of China’s main Olympic medal contenders for Tokyo All the other features and stories of interest
