What is Liu Xiang ?

Dear friends,

       

image from www.bbc.co.uk                    image from Reuters.

Well, the local audience at Bird Nest has waited this big moment : Liu Xiang in action.

Before Liu Xiang appeared, the Bird Nest Stadium was fully packed with some 91,000 spectators. After the brief appearance of Liu Xiang and his decision to quit the race, about 80% of the spectators also quit the stadium, leaving a virtually empty big stadium.  Quite a number have paid more than RMB 4,000 in the black market (with official cost at RMB 200), for the privilege to see Liu Xiang in action.

So what is this Liu Xiang business ?

1. Is Liu Xiang’s Gold Medal a lot more valuable(or has a higher gold content) than a Gold Medal, say in Women’s 48Kg Weight-lifting ?

 The spectators who left have definitely insulted all other Chinese Medalists and athletes, they have collectively helped China in international sports standing. Liu is only one of many.

2. Are there no great athletes to watch after Liu Xiang left ?

Again it is a big insult to all athletes who are in action in the Stadium that day. In fact Cuba’s Dayron Robles, who broke Liu’s world record, was running yesterday. Yelena Isinbayeva, a great crowd drawer and great sport-woman, was in action breaking world-record on pole vaulting. There were also the best world runners in the women’s steeple chase event Final.

Did the spectators come to see Olympic sports or they are there to see their idol ?

Where is the Olympic spirit ?

Sports is sports. In the original Olympic spirit, sports serves as an instrument for men and women to bring out the highest human physical potentials via competitions.

We should therefore cheer for all the athletes irrespective of their colour, race or nationalities. But the reality is that we see display of very nationalist behaviours, especially the spectators. Most come to see their idols, not sports. The winning ceremony should just honour the athletes themselves, doing without the national anthem.

In posting Gold, Silver and Bronze, I argued that Gold, Silver and Bronze is a “chain-event”, i.e. the meaning of Gold does not exit without the chain of all participating athletes.

The realisation of true sports spirit is quite a long process. First secure the chance to compete. Then aim for any medal, then go for the Gold. After which the true meaning of Gold.

A real sports super-power should have the capacity to accept and appreciate top athletes from all over the world, cheering  them as they bring out the top potentials of human race.

There’s a glimpse of hopes. We see Chinese coaches all-over the world in Ping-pong, Diving, Volleyball, Gymnastics etc. We also see foreign coaches in Chinese national team. They should do more of this.

And as far as Liu Xiang is concerned (or Yao Ming for that matter), they are not sports. They are something else. They are satisfying a society yearning for something else.

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Gold, Silver and Bronze

Dear Friends,

Olympic Game comes only once every 4 years. (So you can justifiably call your son an Olympic Son if he is born on Feb 29).

Wow ! Did you watch the Men’s 100 meter Sprint live yesterday ? That’s one of those great Olympic moment, simply mesmerizing. Usain Bolt was literally flying !

image from http://ap.google.com

Usain Bolt, from Jamaica, made it seems so easy. In fact he did all the wrong things to achieve this great feat :

• He is considered way too tall for 100 meter sprint (he’s 6-foot-5),
• He was slow at the start,
• He slowed down before hitting finishing line, stretching and lowering his arms and leaning-back as he approached the finishing line. (the normal wisdom is to speed all the way through the finishing line, and make a final push with the body leaning forward as you cross the line).

Yet Bolt set a new World Record at 9.69 seconds. Had he run conventionally, the clock would probably show 9.60 or better. But he was just having fun.

Now, who is the runner-up in the 100 meter race ?

Well, I can’t really remember his name, only knowing he is from Trinidad.

A month or a year from now, most would not even remember  who got a Silver in Men’s 100 meter sprint. Bronze will be completely forgotten as soon as the event finished. Such is the cruelty of sports.

 image from www.here2china.com

USA and China are pulling out all their stops to lead the League Table of medal tally. Well, that’s politics and national pride, and potential for lots of money for the winners too after the Game.

• But what does Gold, Silver and Bronze Medals really mean ?

The Gold, Silver and Bronze medals of each event belongs to all the participating athletes of that event, from the Gold medalist to the no-name who came in last in the first round in the qualifying heats. And there are many more no-names in between who come and go.

We say the athlete who crossed the line first is first because there was a second and a third behind him, who in turn exist because there were others behind them.

• So, who is the most important in a given race ?

It’s the guy who came in last ! For without him to serve as a benchmark, there wouldn’t be another in front of him, who in turn serves as a relative point for the next guy in front.

Therefore any race is a “chain” event, from the first athlete to the last. A Complete Race requires a Complete Chain of athletes. Usain Bolt will not be Bolt the Flyingman without the Complete Chain of flying men.

Therefore while we see the shining apex of a pyramid, without a much bigger body of the pyramid, the apex does not exist.

Therefore, “Bolt is, because, they are”.

• It is Complete.

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To tell or Not to tell

Dear Friends,

cao Lei (middle), image from http://english.people.com.cn

Gold after Gold in Olympic Women weight lifting. Definitely it is quite eye opening, since I guess most would probably think Chinese women are harding, but not super weight lifters.

Cao Lei (曹磊) captured another Gold Medal today for China in the Women’s 75Kg category Weight Lifting. She also broke the Olympic Record.

It was also learned by the media soon that Cao’s mother has recently passed away before the game start.

To tell or not to tell, that’s the question, especially for a nation obsessed with over-taking USA in Olympic medal tally.

• So, do you think China’s national coach for Women weight lifting broke the sad news to Cao before the competition ?
  

Chinese Olympic athletes typically stay in the national trainning camps for the larger part of the year. Chen Xiexia, who clinched China’s first Gold Medal in this Olympic Games, is a small cute girl from Panyu, Guangdong province. Even as a child below teens, she helped her farmer parents to pull bull cart loads of fire-woods. That’s how she got noticed. She managed to visit her parents only three times over the last four years. She captured Gold in the Women’s 48 Kg category weight lifting on Aug 9 morning.

chen xiexia, image from www.cctv.com

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Olympic 2008 : American Psyche

Dear Friends,

image from sina.com

While most Americans continue to celebrate their hero Michael Phelps in the swimming pool, today’s other top Olympics without doubt were the Women Team Gymnastics and Cuba vs China Women Volleyball.

China’s Women Volleyball team could not close the match after winning first 2 sets, allowing the Cubans to make a very strong come back to take the remainding 3 sets. When top teams are playing, anything is possible. They are all champions.

For the Women Team Gymnastics, China and America were neck to neck against each other until the last two events, the uneven bars and the floor exercise.  The Chinese Women Team has been preparing for today’s event the moment Beijing won the contest to host the Game about 7 years ago. They walked away with their first ever Olympic Gold for Team Gymnastics.

The Americans’ reaction to Chinese Women’s stellar performance was quite telling of their inner psychology at the moment vs China. They started to cry foul. They said the Chinese girls were underage (below 16 for 2008 ) and the event coordinator was playing psychological games with American gymnasts etc. (see NY Times article : http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/14/sports/olympics/14gymnastics.html?em ).  

What’s the benefit to the Chinese to be caught cheating while hosting the Game they have been waiting for a hundred years ?  The more likely truth is their diet. I have addressed the growth cycle in earlier postings. It is the hormone. Modern day diets contain growth hormones from the food chains all over. Kids’ physique outgrow their emotional maturity at ever younger age these days. The Chinese understands this long time ago and may prescribe a low protein diet to these women gymnasts to postpone adulthood.

The Chinese Women Team deserved the gold medal. The Americans lost because they made errors in their routines. It is sports. It happens to every team. They lost not because Chinese gymnasts are underage.

The margin of comfort for the Americans has shrinked with the rise of China (and Russia), economically first and now even in sports. American have enjoyed superior confidence for way too long that it gets harder for them to swallow the possibility that others can be just as good as they are. They are more wonderkids in the block now.

Our respect goes to all the athletes. They have made great personal sacrification in the last 4 years to prepare for this game and there is only one gold medal for each event.

Gold Medal alone cannot be the only yardstick of their achievements.

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Beijing Olympic Opening Ceremony

Dear Friends,

What caught your eyes in the 4 hour long Beijing Olympic Opening Ceremony ?

Personally, apart from all the fireworks and impecular synchronised movements of hundreds and thousands of performers, I like the following three :

1. the 2008 drummers :

Simple, straight to the point, with 2008 drummers beating and moving as one. It is classical Zhang Yi-mou. Scale, colour, sound, movement, power. Guessed all audience abroad must be mesmerised. And this was just the opening scene.

At the same time, quote from classical text  : “有朋自远方来， 不亦乐乎 ?” was displayed on the rim of Bird’s Nest. (The quote is the 2nd opening sentence from Kongzi (孔子)’s 论语 “Lun-yu”)， i.e. “Isn’t it a happy occasion to be in company of like-minded friends from afar ?”.

How did it become “Welcome my friends” when translated into English ?

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image from sina.com

2. central Chinese spirit : 和 (“He”) for Harmony with other people.

Realising foreigners might not get this subtle message thru’ the scene on Chinese invention on “Type-setting”, a more direct scene on a peaceful dove was added as an insurance.

 

image from www.beijing2008.cn/ceremonies/photo

image from sina.com

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3. “天圆地方” : tai-chi philosophy

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So, what caught your eyes ?

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