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 a “win at all costs” mentality. In fact, it feels more like we’re moving back towards that gold obsession these days.
Then I’ll look at some other good performance, as well as some disappointments, and finish with a few other developments – including some significant Winter Olympic news and the launch of the China Sports Insider podcast!
Weightlifting (5)
Almost 75% of the Olympic golds China has won since 1984 are in these six sports: table tennis, shooting, diving, badminton, gymnastics and weightlifting, so don’t be surprised to see this sport at the top of the list. Weightlifting is a classic Olympic sport in that a measure of “who’s the strongest?” feels like it should be in the Games. It plays into Chinese hands very well, because across both men’s and women’s events and different weight categories, there are 14 gold medals up for grabs.
It’s not that inspiring – I can’t imagine too many kids watchin the Olympics want to become weightlifters – but it remains a decent source of national pride for China, with 5 out of 9 golds so far going to the PRC, plus an additional silver.
Indian media released a story that appeared to be entirely made up about Hou Zhihui kept back in Tokyo for an additional drug test after winning the women’s 49kg division. It gained traction across several Asian countries – weightlifting does not have a good doping reputation and may yet get kicked out of the Games in future editions – but the story has been debunked here.
Shooting (3)
Not all sports are created equal, and let’s be honest, shooting is only marginally more interesting than watching paint dry – or at least the range shooting is. (Trap shooting, where the competitors actually move, and the PA plays music in the breaks, is infinitely better.) But I have nothing on this. China has 3 golds, 1 silver and 5 bronzes. Yawn.
Diving (3)
3 gold medals out of 4 events so far is a solid return, even if China always aims for a sweep. The one missing from the set so far was men’s 10m synchro, won by GB’s Tom Daley and “that other guy”. Daley is very well known in China, having appeared at the Beijing Olympics as a 14-year-old, and the Chinese very nearly pipped him and Matty Lee to gold with their final dive. China will be hoping for four more golds, though, including in the men’s 10m individual – in which Daley goes again.
Swimming (3)
OK now we’re getting interesting, because the swimming pool is a little more unpredictable – and China has had a good meet so far, with 3 golds, 2 silvers and 1 bronze totaling the country’s second-best Olympic performance in the pool, after winning 5 golds at London 2012.
Zhang Yufei (women’s 200m fly), Wang Shun (men’s 200m IM) and the women’s 4 x 200m freestyle relay (with a world record) won the golds, with Zhang (who was in the relay team) also winning another 2 silvers. She lost out in the 100m fly to Canada’s Maggie Mac Neil, who was born in Jiangxi, China, but abandoned as a baby and adopted by a Canadian family. Here’s what Zhang had to say about Mac Neil:
“She’s of Chinese ethnicity. I learned that back in 2019, so I felt quite close to her. I don’t know if she speaks Chinese at all, but I feel that she is a family member to be honest with you.”
It’s worth mentioning that not all Chinese swimmers are disliked by their competitors – only, it appears, Sun Yang, who is currently banned for his second doping offense. When Wang Shun was speaking to CCTV after winning gold, Duncan Scott – the silver medalist and the man who refused to shake Sun’s hand at the 2019 World Championships – specifically stopped to congratulate Wang.
Table Tennis (2)
China has won the men’s and the women’s singles in all-Chinese finals, but the big shock was the Chinese pair of Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen losing to Japan’s Jun Mizutani and Mima Ito. In a fantastic battle, China went up 2-0, then fought back from 3-2 down to force a decider, which the Japanese pair won 11-6 to take the gold. CCTV ended its broadcast just seconds after the defeat was confirmed – perhaps they were up against their broadcast schedule, but it felt like too abrupt. As I wrote on Twitter, part of being a good winner is being a good loser – and that applies to the media and fans, too.
Many took to social media to complain of infractions by the Japanese pair that went unpunished, and others took great delight in celebrating Ito’s 4-0 defeat in the women’s singles semifinal to China’s Sun Yingsha rather than showing their support for Sun. In fact, Sun and Ito are close friends and had plenty of nice things to say about each other, but the reaction on Chinese social media was unpleasant. Mizutani had to change the settings on his Instagram account after a torrent of abuse, while Ito shut down her Weibo account. For a country that excels at online censorship, this abuse has – at best – been tolerated by authorities in China. There’s a further round-up of Chinese social media reaction here.
Rowing (1)
Rowing has been a success in that China has won its first Olympic gold since 2008, with victory in the women’s quadruple sculls. Steve Redgrave, who oversees China’s rowing program, said his dream was for three golds, but China’s return of 1 gold and 2 bronze has to be seen as encouraging, with Paris 2024 and beyond the real goal of the team. It’s amazing what China can do with a long-term plan in place that officials then actually stick to – football could learn some lessons here. There’s more from Redgrave here.
Fencing (1)
Another of those niche sports in which China has looked to make some gains, but only 1 gold would be less than they hoped for.
Gymnastics (1)
Five medals – but only one gold – tells the story here in one of the sports in which China has traditionally excelled. The gold came in women’s trampoline, a discipline which also saw two silvers, with the men’s team all-around picking up bronze.
That left one silver and it was the most dramatic of all. Xiao Ruoteng had been leading in the men’s individual all around heading into the final rotation, before it all went wrong. I wrote about it on Twitter here, but Xiao was pipped by Japan’s Daiki Hashimoto and it didn’t go down at all well in China.
Badminton (1)
One gold so far, but things are going pretty well, with three more good opportunities to come. The mixed doubles was an all-Chinese affair, while the Chinese men’s pair lost in the doubles final to their friends from across the Taiwan strait, but Chen Yufei has a chance to turn the tables on Taiwan in the women’s singles final later today, and the Chinese women’s doubles go against Indonesia tomorrow.
Basketball
For a country that values gold so highly, its unusual to praise a bronze medal, but third place in the women’s 3×3 basketball tournament – for which the men also qualified – is impressive. China’s women are into the quarterfinals of the main 5×5 tournament, so there could be more to come here. I mention this specifically because basketball is one of the few team sports that are globally competitive in which China has performed well (see below).
Tokyo Disappointments
I need to start by giving the Chinese women some credit. Historically, they have outperformed the men, and the fact that nearly 70% of all Chinese athletes in Tokyo are women is down to the fact that the women have qualified in many team sports (volleyball, football, basketball, field hockey, water polo etc) where the men have not. But at least two of those teams have been desperately disappointing – volleyball and football.
Volleyball
The defending champs got off to the worst possible start losing 0-3 to Turkey, with star player Zhu Ting benched by coach Lang Ping with a wrist injury. I took some abuse on Twitter from Turkish fans for saying that Turkey was one of the weakest teams – but, despite their excellent game against China, the fact remains that they were seeded as the worst team in the group. Not to worry, though, because China lost their opener to an underdog in Rio and still won gold. But then they lost to the Americans, again 0-3. Against the Russians – sorry, the farcically named Russian Olympic Committee – they lost again, picking up a loser’s point in a 3-2 defeat. That left China needing other results to go their way, but when Turkey beat Argentina on Saturday, it was all over for China, despite still having two games left to play.
I’m focusing on this for two reasons. Firstly, the women’s volleyball team is probably the most famous team in China across any sport. Their coach is a legend, and some of their players are household names. So this performance hurts in China. Secondly, it’s the only team sport played somewhat universally that requires creativity in which China has had some success in recent years. It may not be the most popular sport in the world, but it’s at least a second tier sport, and the power is spread across many nations, meaning that it’s globally competitive in a way that, say, table tennis is not. Winning volleyball gold gets you respect, soft power and more. But it’s back to the drawing board for China after this result.
Football
China used to be a world power in women’s soccer, but then fell away a little. When its soccer targets were announced in 2017, the women were tasked with becoming a world power by 2030, versus 2050 for the men. The fact that they appeared in the 12-team Olympic tournament perhaps still qualifies them as being one of the top teams in the world, but the manner of their performances was deeply concerning. 0-5 to Brazil, 4-4 with Zambia (ranked #103 in the world) after being 3-1 up, and then an 8-2 hammering by the Dutch.
There’s been a huge amount of focus on the development of Chinese football in recent years, but it’s hard to conclude anything other than the fact that the team is going backwards. This was a disaster.
Other News
There is too much else going on in Tokyo to provide a comprehensive round-up, but one story of note is that the Chinese ice hockey has finally announced that they are recruiting some overseas players for 2022. Read the news release from Kunlun Red Star, who will train those players in Russia in the upcoming months, and the back story here. I’ll write more on this in the coming weeks.
Oh, and I’ve launched a podcast! I’m doing it with Haig Balian, host of The Beijing Sessions, and the first episode is here. More on that in the weeks to come, too.
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