David Beckham always says all the right things to all the right people, but if he is to fulfill all his promises and obligations, he may need to start cloning himself. With soccer-related commitments in at least the UK, the US, France and China (and possibly others in Qatar in elsewhere), plus countless sponsorship obligations around the world, Beckham’s retirement will be anything but relaxed.
Lists like SportsPro magazine’s Most Marketable Athletes [full list below] are equal parts inspired and enraging. I love the fact that Brazilian Paralympian Alan Oliveira (no. 17) is included, combining his age, talent and good looks with the undoubted boost to Brazilian sport that the next World Cup and Olympics will bring, almost as much as I hate the selection of Seth Jones (39), who is largely unknown even within his own sport, and, at 18, may not even play a single NHL game in the next three years even if he later develops into an All-Star.
Who would you rather have advertizing your brand – Katie Walsh (50) or Li Na (not on list)?
Here’s my article in this month’s That’s Beijing magazine, which is now online, but was written before Dou Zecheng’s heroics at the China Open 10 days ago. The key to being the next Chinese golfing superstar? Money.
Liu Xiang is out for the season, and will miss the 2013 World Championships in Moscow among other events. Further ahead, the 2015 World Championships will be held in Beijing and the 2016 Olympic Games will be held in Rio. In 27 Olympics, the oldest ever winner of the 110-metre hurdles was Mark McCoy who was 30 in 1992; Liu will be 33 in Rio.
Stephon Marbury is an extremely optimistic fellow. That’s part of what makes him so interesting and his infectious enthusiasm has gained him millions of fans here in China. The way in which he deals with the haters is admirable too: reposting messages of hate and wishing them all the best.
Stephon Marbury: slightly insane
But he can also be a little too optimistic. OK, so maybe he’s just trying to promote the sport of basketball here – but consider one of the things he said to the China Daily newspaper on Thursday:
In today’s Sports Talk column, I look at the ongoing Jordan vs Qiaodan case. Qiaodan is a HUGE company here (1.7 billion yuan in revenue in 2012), and is keen to clear all obstacles on the road to IPO and further riches, but the whole company has for years pretended to be the official Michael Jordan representative in China. It’s not, of course, but it’s done a great job fooling the public.
Completely different: note the closed fist on the Qiaodan silhouette
This kid is impressive. OK, so he’s not the 12-year-old, he’s not the 14-year-old, he’s not even the 15-year-old, but 16-year-old Chinese golfer Dou Zecheng followed up his 2-under-par round of 70 on Thursday with an even-par 72 on Friday to make the cut at the Volvo China Open with two shots to spare. Dou sits tied for 36th place in a field that has just been reduced from 156 to 68.
Some of those who didn’t make the cut: Spain’s Alvaro Quiros, a six-time winner on the European Tour, Ryder Cup legend Paul McGinley and 29 of the 32 Chinese players in the field (and Dou is currently ahead of both of the other Chinese who did make the cut, Huang Wenyi and Liang Wenchong).
He’s still ten shots off the lead, after Finland’s Mikko Ilonen shot a course record 63, but Dou’s second round was perhaps more impressive than his first: the attention that had previously been squarely on 12-year-old Ye Wocheng’s shoulders at the start of the tournament had shifted onto Dou on Friday and he rose to the occasion beautifully, even reaching -4 for the tournament early in his round. [UPDATE: Dou shot another even-par 72 in Saturday’s third round, and a final round of 73 saw him finish tied for 33rd.]
With all the attention at this week’s Volvo China Open on 12-year-old Chinese qualifier Ye Wocheng, it was perhaps no surprise that he shot a 7-over-par 79 in Thursday’s first round. But these Chinese youngsters just keep coming… 16-year-old amateur, Dou Zecheng, shot a 2-under-par 70, and sits tied for 11th, four strokes off the lead.
Dou Zecheng: a young-looking 16-year-old
Dou may not be as famous as fellow Chinese teens Guan Tianlang, who made the cut in this year’s Masters, or Andy Zhang, who qualified for last year’s US Open, but he’s been on the radar for a while. His best achievement to date was a fourth place finish in the stroke play section of last year’s US Junior Amateur Championship, though he lost in the Round of the 16 in the subsequent match play competition. He is currently the top ranked junior golfer of those set to graduate in 2015, and number 8 overall.
16-year-old Jim Liu, number 2 overall in the junior ranks, is also playing in Tianjin. He’s an American, born to Chinese parents, and became the youngest U.S. Junior Amateur champion in history in 2010 (beating Tiger Woods’ record), but struggled on the front nine on Thursday, hitting the turn in +6, and finished with a 5-over-par 77, and 15-year-old Bai Zhengkai posted an 11-over-par 83. Meanwhile, Andy Zhang is NOT playing: he pulled out this week through injury. Continue reading 12-year-old golfer upstaged by 16-year-old veteran→
Golf is on the up in China: 14-year-old Guan Tianlang made global headlines when he made the cut at the Masters last month; now it’s the turn of 12-year-old Ye Wocheng, who tees off in the European Tour’s China Open on Thursday in Tianjin. And Nike is due to announce the signing of two Chinese golfers in the coming days, just one more sign that the sport stands on the verge of a breakthrough in China…perhaps. Here’s my Sports Talk column on the perils of overhyping teen (and pre-teen) phenoms:
Potential, promise, upside… These are just some of the buzzwords used to describe how good something or someone could become. Whether the terms are applied to a financial investment or a budding sports star, it’s a large part of creating excitement about the future.
Ye Wocheng, 12, will go into the record books on Thursday
Rutgers fired basketball coach Mike Rice recently after video surfaced of him abusing his students at practice. This is every bit as bad, worse if you consider that these students are 13/14-year old girls. They get repeatedly hit, kicked, whipped, smacked and verbally abused by their teacher. Check out the look at 1:04 when one girl turns to check on another who has just been beaten. Source is unknown, but video is clearly taken on at least two separate occasions, so this cannot be dismissed as a one-off event. [UPDATE: According to Chinese media (via Beijing Cream) the video was originally uploaded to an international video-sharing website last November, and then was recently posted on Chinese video site Youku by user 比利时巧克力2. The Youku version now has 1.92.2 2.7 million views and has drawn more than 37,00039,000 41,000 comments. UPDATE 2: As the Huffington Post notes, the copy of this I uploaded to Youtube has been deleted – even though the very similar Mike Rice abuse video (here, and many other places) continues to rack up the hits – so I’m now linking to another copy of the video].
Sports business news and analysis in China and Asia
Some of those who didn’t make the cut: Spain’s Alvaro Quiros, a six-time winner on the European Tour, Ryder Cup legend Paul McGinley and 29 of the 32 Chinese players in the field (and Dou is currently ahead of both of the other Chinese who did make the cut, Huang Wenyi and Liang Wenchong).
