The 2016 Rio Olympics weren’t as successful for the Chinese athletes as some of those in the country were expecting. The reaction to their results has been met with an interesting mix of emotions.
Halfway through the Games the Xinhua News Agency posted on their official Twitter page ‘You’re kidding me? The country which has never finished above China is about to’ with an image of the medal standings. The tweet was promptly deleted.
At the time of the tweet the country sat behind both the United States and Great Britain in the medal standings, the same position that they ultimately end up in. A position that the news agency was still taking exception to on Tuesday when they took out a full page advertisement in the The Times one of London’s major newspapers.
The advertisement had the heading of ‘China’s Heroes’ in it Sun Yang, who won the 200 freestyle and finished second in the 400 freestyle, was one of the athletes highlighted. It also laid claim to the second place position in the medal standings giving the reason that the country’s medal total was greater than that of Great Britain. Great Britain finished ahead of China in the standings thanks to earning one more gold.
Great Britain came away from Rio with 27 gold, 23 silver and 17 bronze for a total of 67 medals while China earned 26 gold, 18 silver and 26 bronze for a total of 70 medals. This was the first time since the 2000 Games that China has finished lower than second in the medal standings. They sat atop the standings at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and finished second to the Americans in both the 2004 and 2012 Games.
Although the mainstream media in China showed great displeasure in the results it was apparent by the social media reaction to the athletes performance at the Games the Chinese public may not agree with that stance. Fu Yuanhui, who tied Canadian Kylie Masse for bronze in the 100 backstroke, became one of the most popular athletes in China not because of her performance, but because of the personality she revealed in her interviews.
In fact ten million fans watched an interview that the teenager gave on a mobile app.
In the advertisement Xinhua also states that one of the most touching moments of the Games was when diver Zin Kai proposed to his girlfriend He Zi right after she received her silver medal. The article stated that:
“The moment was emblematic of a new China that emerged during these Games; a China that has laid bare its emotions while placing greater emphasis on human spirit, respect and friendship than simply winning titles.”
The statement contradicts the stance the news agency took on the athletes performance earlier in the Games. It also conflicts with the reasoning behind buy advertising space in a British newspaper to lay claim to a position in the medal standings that they did not earn.
Don’t kid yourself, they are furious that they lost out to America!!!!!
Don’t kid yourself, they are furious that they lost out to America!!!!!
The media really like to talk about China lately. Comparing full developed countries to a still developing one, like, really? Even people make that stupid comparisson of population as if you should get more golds because of that amount of people you have. Sorry, that doesn’t work like that. The focus should be on how many of those 1.4 billions have access to do sports, top class facilities and imported coachers; with their average income and without the government help, chinese athletes hardly would be able to support themselves as a professional athlete, so is ok to have government support, don’t see any problem with that and many people say that they are useless after their sport career: false, i… Read more »
Face saving is very big in Chinese culture. It’s all about face in everything they do. It’s them who requested the Queen to greet them last year because they thought if the white British Queen, a symbol of power, elegance and class, came out to greet them, it was an ultimate face lift for them. It’s too bad that the British had to cater a bunch of peasants who had primitive behaviors trying to act like they had class. Even the Queen agreed in one video! Taking a full page ad on a major British newspaper in an attempt to earn some face back, that is an embarrassing, shameless, juvenile act of a nation. A petty peasant just being a… Read more »
haha you’re allowed to do that to Britain
This is typical Chinese behavior. Its wrong when others do something but Ok when they do it. If they win its the most important thing ever. If they lose its not at all important. What you have to understand about Chinese thinking, is that it doesnt exist. They are told what to believe by the same people who honestly believe that countries are able to claim entire oceans, even though thats never been done before in human history. This same group of people joined the WTO in 2001 and promised to stop copying tech and intellectual property and continued to do so for the next 15 years. They hate the Japanese government for “not being honest” about history, yet dont… Read more »
At least they support their athletes rather than abandoning them.
Before the birth of communist China, China was called the Sick man of Asia and they sent only 1 athlete to the Olympics. The reason was… Traditional Chinese Culture thought of physical activity as being barbaric, even Kung Fu. After the Cultural Revolution, much of the traditional Chinese culture was destroy and thus the Chinese begins to copy the west and they thought of sports as being fun especially when they see white athletes pump their fist and scream out loud each time they win a critical point or the game; this to the Chinese, there was something RAW and Barbaric about it.