As of right now, the medal count currently stands 1) China, with 22 gold and 35 medals total, and 2) US with 13 gold and 41 medals total. It's very strange to look at these medal standings and not see the US dominating in all categories, and while its nice to still have the medal lead, Gold medals are still the number 1 concern if one judges the Olympics as an international competition (which is debatable). Regardless, China views this as a competition and has made it a top priority to win the most golds. In fact, they launched Operation 119 after Sydney, an athletic operation designed to pick and train athletes in the 119 sports that give the most medal opportunities. While these include swimming, gymnastics and track, most of them are sports the majority of Americans don't care about like shooting, diving, weightlifting and archery. Well it seems Operation 119 is working, and while I hear from some American commentators that this isn't a competition, why should we care about women's weightlifting, I steadfastly believe that Americans do care.
The Olympics are such a symbol, one of the only real ways countries can compete directly against each other without declaring war. They've always been dominated by the economically strong countries, and the Olympic battles between Soviet Russia and the USA are legendary (DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES?). So China's sudden surge up the medal stand has to correspond with economic development and political power, and to a ton of Americans, that's a scary thought. If China wins the medal count, they can claim to be the superior athletic nation of the world and Americans can't just argue, "but our basketball team crushed yours!" Speaking of which, I am absolutely furious about ESPN's Olympic Coverage. The only stories they ever show are Michael Phelps and the USA basketball team. I want to hear all the stories from all the sports of all countries, but I can't even find out how American wrestlers are doing, much less how fencers from Qatar have fared. ESPN is a joke, a fact that is readily apparent when compared to the sports coverage here in China, which will Chinese-centric, covers a hell of a lot more. All of these fringe sports which may not be a concern to the American public are a huge concern for the contestants. Trust me, every single ping pong player, including the Americans, wish they were as good as the Chinese. Every female diver looks at Guo Jingjing with the same envy that we look at Kobe Bryant.
Anyways, I want to make a side note about my identity. Obviously I was born in America and am an American first and foremost but would draw pictures of the Chinese flag in kindergarten. But once I visited Hong Kong and learned of that island's history, I stopped seeing myself as Chinese. After all, my ancestors had not been part of China since the 1800s, and as I still argue, Hong Kong is not part of China even after the handover. Well, the Chinese people I have talked to have convinced me that while I am not a 中国人, a title reserved for the Mandarin-speaking Chinese-born people of Chinese descent, I am a 中华人, which encompasses the greater Chinese nation of China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and overseas Chinese. I'm not always treated well here because of my ethnic and linguistic identity, but the exact same can be said in the United States. Furthermore, living in Beijing for an extended period makes everyone an apologist for China. All the white people I know who have spent significant time here love China and attack people like Steven Spielberg and Nikolas Sarkozy. So now when I root for countries, its in order 1) USA 2) Hong Kong and 3) China and possibly 4) Ireland :). And since I've yet to see an athlete from Hong Kong, it's basically just US and China.
When I watch a Chinese volleball team compete against Brazil, I root for China. When the American boxer steps in against a Russian, I'm going nuts for the red white and blue. And when USA basketball faced off against China, I cheered whole heartedly for all of LeBron's dunks but hooted politely when Yao Ming nailed a jumper. I definitely feel happy for the Chinese people who have devoted so much to these Games and are seeing them pay off, at least on the field. Surely you can feel sympathy that the most populous country in the world has only just received the Olympic Games (after Australia had had 2) and still the IOC gets criticized for choosing Beijing.
That said, I have a difficult time looking at the medal count and seeing China firmly in first place. And it's going to stay that way. I predicted beforehand that China would win more golds (check the archives) but it's surprised me how badly they've crushed the competition. Even though the American dominated track & field hasn't started yet, the US is so far behind that a comeback is nearly impossible. Maybe James Blake, who just finally defeated Roger Federer, can change that, but don't back on it. Of the 13 American gold medals, 6 belong to Michael Phelps; who would have guessed that the great American juggernaut would be a one man show? Having settled that China will win the most golds, how do we feel about that? I simply cannot identify myself with these Chinese athletes, who have been hand picked from the fields before the age of 7 and sent away from their parents to train full time at a sport they had never even heard of before. How can I support that practice? Is there any part of the Olympic spirit there? Has anyone ever raised the question of why there are almost no athletes of Chinese descent on the squads of other countries, but so many great ones on the Chinese team? It's because Chinese culture and the Chinese body are not generally suited for most Olympic sports, and the only way to get around that is a freaking lifetime of hard training. The government has hired French fencing coaches and Russian wrestling coaches and manufactured medal contenders, and the rest of the country barely knows how to perform a bench press. And then there is gymnastics, a sport in which athletes from all countries devote their early lives to, permanently altering their bodies, especially for girls who usually end up upsetting puberty. The Chinese gymnasts perform with trauma visible on their expressions, as if they will never get over how brutally they were pushed to train. In addition, they looked like 13 year olds, a suspicion that seems to have been proven true with the recent allegations of age fraud (the Olympics have a 16 year old age minimum). I'll still chant 中国加油 but seriously, that's disgusting. The Olympic ideals of bigger, faster, stronger may not necessarily be the best ideals.
On the other hand, how do you identify with most American athletes? While the Chinese athletes are the pinnacle personification of hard work, the Americans represent the natural talent that are also frustratingly unfair. The Americans best event, the sprint and field sections of track & field, are the sports that most reward natural talents. I'm a pretty fast kid but even if I trained lights out for 20 years, I will never run a 200 meter dash in under 21 seconds. How is it fair then that Tyson Gay, who couldn't even get a scholarship to college out of high school because he didn't study shit, can run that in jeans? The American team has Carmelo Anthony, a talented asshole with a giant shoe deal. Not exactly my model athlete. If China is the wrestler who started wrestling at 4 and pins everyone in high school, America is the wrestler who picked up the sport in 9th grade, eats snickers bars before meets, slacks off in practice, and still wins state.
I do identify with various members of the teams. Who doesn't like Liu Xiang, who seems to be athletically inferior to most of his competitors, in a sport that is 85% athletic, and still sets world records? Or Michael Phelps, who has a bulls eye on his swimming cap in every event he competes in, swims a ton of different strokes that each must be trained separately, and wins gold every frekaing time? I also like the American archers, boxers, badminton players, all those competitors in sports that their country could care less about. These are usually the athletes that are here for the love of the game and have been training while no one is watching. That is a the concept I take from a quote on Jeff Kirchick's AIM profile that I use to determine the athletes I respect most: who works the hardest when no one is watching? Who is the most self-motivated athlete out there? That is the person who deserves gold. And the country that deserves gold? The one that is motivated not for money, fame nor power, but because it knows that teaching self-motivation to its populace is a recipe for success.
No comments:
Post a Comment