Happy New Year to all my readers and thanks for following, listening and reading throughout 2021. The 2022 Beijing Olympics begin exactly one month from today, and the Closed Loop Management System (aka the Olympic bubble) went into operation this morning.
This week on the China Sports Insider Podcast we spoke to Chinese Olympic sailing champion Xu Lijia, who won gold in the laser division at the 2012 Olympics in London, where she also carried the flag for China at the Closing Ceremony. She had some fascinating things to say about her career and about China’s state-run sports system in general. She was also pictured in Shanghai recently alongside Yao Ming, table tennis champ Wang Liqin, and people’s favorite Peng Shuai in what was clearly a staged photo shoot. I asked her about that and for her thoughts on Peng in what has become our most listened podcast so far! Full blurb below:
First up, we look at the back-and-forth between China and the US on visas for State Department personnel ahead of the Winter Olympics and discuss what’s really going on (1:47). Then we look ahead to 2022 with some bold predictions (emphasis on bold!). From the Olympics to F1 to basketball, 2022 will be sure to have many surprises in store – we give our predictions, plus a couple of hopes, for the coming year in sport in China. (3:13)
Our guest this week is Xu Lijia (Lily), who won sailing gold at the 2012 London Olympics. And just last week she popped up in photos seen around the world with tennis player Peng Shuai (15:20). She spoke to us about her experience of being named the flagbearer for China at the 2012 Closing Ceremony (16:25), how winning Olympic gold changed her life (18:40), why she launched a sailing podcast (21:37), a typical training regime for sailors (22:36), how she got into sailing after being recruited from the swimming pool (25:20) and the system for identifying and developing talented athletes, plus the sacrifices that Chinese hopefuls have to make (30:11).
More recently, she’s been busy learning how to drive an E Formula 1 car with Daniel Lu of the Porsche Driving Academy (33:45), and hanging out in Shanghai with Yao Ming and Peng Shuai. We asked Xu how that meeting happened (34:29), what they talked about and what Peng said to her (36:09). Finally, she talked about the Beijing Olympics and the role she might play (37:43), before Mark and Haig discussed the interview – and Xu’s meeting with Peng – in more detail (41:30).
If you enjoyed the podcast, please download, share or subscribe! And as always, find me on Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn.
Catch up with some previous episodes of the China Sports Insider Podcast here:
- Pro coach Olivier Grignard talks tennis in China
- NBA All-Star Stephon Marbury on his decade in China
- NYT’s Tariq Panja & ex-CSL adviser Nikki Wang on Chinese football
- NFL China’s Steph Hsiao on growing the game
- Perfect World’s Josh Lee on esports in China
- Bamboo Goalposts author Rowan Simons
- Jon Howse on hockey development in China
