China is currently bidding against Almaty, Kazakhstan for the right to host the 2022 Winter Olympics. In general, this is a bad idea – Beijing has little to no snow in the winter, but lots and lots of smog. And those are just the starter reasons (I documented more in this column for Bloomberg last…
All posts in Olympics
Four Shanghai Views on London 2012
Here at Shanghai Scrap, we’ve always been sports fans. And, in our opinion, being a sports fan means being an Olympics fan. Sure, the games drive us nuts at times. The IOC’s hyper-vigilance against corporate logos that don’t have a financial relationship with the Olympics are just the start (we’ll never forget the Chinese archer…
How many IOC members watch Oprah?
[To non-IOC members who also haven’t heard of her, here’s a wiki to help you along] An official, non-China-related Shanghai Scrap tirade: I’ve traveled widely – perhaps, not as widely as some of my colleagues – but widely enough to know a few things. First, never exchange money at an airport; two, always pack single…
One from the archives: The Tragedy of Yao’s Left Foot
This weekend, not long after Yao Ming’s season-ending fracture in his left foot became the hottest topic in the Chinese sports world, a friend reminded me of a post that I did regarding Yao’s left foot back in February 2008. Now, I’m not real big on bloggers who quote themselves, but I’m tied up with…
The Red Race
I received an email this afternoon from a friend who told me that I needed to find a copy of a documentary entitled “The Red Race,” which had aired Monday night on Shanghai’s venerable Documentary Channel. Directed by Gan Chao, a Shanghainese documentary filmmaker, the film offers stark and disturbing footage of a Shanghai-area gymnastics…
Where Fuwa Fear to Tread.
I promise that – in the run-up to Expo 2010 – I will not make a habit of Haibao posts [Haibao being the mascot for the 2010 World Expo]. But over the last five days or so, the roll-out of Expo 2010/Haibao-related material in Shanghai has been so rapid and massive, that I feel justified…
Operate on Liu Xiang? Sorry, I’m due on the 14th fairway.
News that Liu Xiang may travel to the US for surgery on his injured ankle has produced much defensive teeth-gnashing on the part of Chinese sports fans. Here at Shanghai Scrap, we can’t help but wonder whether the Great Hurdler might have been able to run if the Chinese sports establishment had repressed its pride…
By Comparison … London’s Already Ambivalent Olympics
I spent most of the last week in London and didn’t see one London 2012 Olympic concession. Not one. Not even a concession parked in the back of some other kind of concession. This afternoon I wandered into London Heathrow’s duty-free sporting goods shop, but they just shook their heads when I asked. I then…
Of Beer, Algae, and Sailing
So ends the Olympic sailing competition … and my Atlantic dispatches from the Olympic co-host cities. The last of them, “Of Beer, Algae, and Sailing,” posted from Qingdao, is now up on the Atlantic’s site. Among other challenges, this proved to be the wettest to report.
Sailing in the rain …
Just back from a rainy and windy day out of at the Olympic Sailing Center, topped off by a 3 mile walk back to my hotel because – dear me – there were no taxis to be hired in downtown Qingdao (during a rush-hour rainstorm that coincided with the end of Olympic events). I will…