Tiger Woods is a God; Hu Jia is a Victim
Only days after the sports world, and the New York Times, celebrated the fact that Tiger Woods fought through a painful knee injury to win the US Open (and millions of dollars), the New York Times runs a long feature today – “China Presses Injured Athletes in Quest for Gold” – bemoaning the fact that:
Pressured by the national athletic system and tempted by the commercial riches awaiting star performers in the 2008 Games, China’s athletes are pushing themselves to their limits and beyond, causing some to risk their health in pursuit of nationalist glory.
I don’t have the time or energy (today, at least), to comb through the NYT’s archives in search of, say, their laudatory coverage of Willis Reed’s legendary appearance in Game 7 of the NBA finals – despite a debilitating deep muscle tear in his thigh; or, for that matter, Paul Pierce’s celebrated Game 1 injury heroics in the most recent NBA finals. But, needless to say, the willingness to play through injury is celebrated as much in American sport as it is in Chinese sport, and usually for the same reasons (including money on the back end). And, just like Chinese sport, long-term injury and health effects are not typically a concern of American athletes or American leagues – as evidenced by the reduced life expectancy of American football players, and Bill Walton’s knees.
But, just in case anyone out there thinks that only Chinese athletes risk their health in the pursuit of national glory and riches, let me refer you to “You Gotta Play Hurt,” a recent Fox Sports list of the top eleven (eleven?) injured sports performances in contemporary US sporting history (most of which were richly rewarded by US sports franchises that value “toughness” over “injury prone”).
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For the record, “China Presses Injured Athletes in Quest for Gold,” is precisely the kind of article that drives the Chinese nuts – as well as accusations that foreign media coverage of China is “biased” or “unfair.” At a minimum, one has to wish that the NYT’s editors had paused to consider why Willis Reed’s name is still invoked at Madison Square Garden when the chips are down (and they’ve been down a whole lot lately).
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I think there’s a pretty big difference between choosing to play with a knee injury that can heal and choosing to dive with an eye injury that could become blindness.
Comment by Scott — June 20, 2008 @ 1:44 pm
Scott – I agree with you. But unless I missed it in the NYT article, nobody is forcing Hu Jia to dive. He’s choosing to do it, just as Tiger chose to play at the Open. What’s the difference?
Comment by Adam — June 20, 2008 @ 1:46 pm
There is no difference. This is such a good/sad example of how the New York Times and the other foreign media are always looking for the worst possible interpret of china. I’m so sick of it!
Comment by 2ndGenHan — June 20, 2008 @ 8:36 pm
Scott, choosing to play with a knee injury that can heal is choosing to delay that healing of the knee injury and increase the risks of long-term damage over and above normal wear and tear. As everybody else has already said, ain’t no difference between what happens in America, my native New Zealand, here in China, or anywhere else that has professional sports and/or a cultural obsession with sporting victory.
Comment by chriswaugh_bj — June 20, 2008 @ 9:05 pm
Amazing to me that a newspaper with full-time NFL correspondents would run a story like this. NFL teams submit injury reports during the week and newspapers reprint them without any hesitation. No scandal there and no long features intimating a sick sporting culture either.
Comment by Brother_W — June 20, 2008 @ 11:29 pm
I think that’s an interesting perspective, much like the one offered by spiked online, that people are looking for ways to feel better about themselves and about being in a country in the economic pits. But I hvae to say, Woods is playing for rewards that run to the tens of millions, most of these athletes train so damn hard because they’re uneducated and the medal will help them get to a new stage in life. Both are allowed to make the choice to play or not, but think about what influences the choice. One’s sacrifice gives him a lot of money, the other makes a sacrifice because an olympic medal 9of any colour) will give him entrance to a university–that’s true, I read it somewhere.
This is way out of date but I’d just like to give an alternative view.
Comment by clarice — November 28, 2008 @ 11:24 pm