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:…
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Liu to World: “Eat my dust.”
As has no doubt been noted by anybody who cares about these matters, Liu Xiang was disqualified on the basis of two false starts at the Prefontaine Classic grand prix in Eugene, Oregon over the weekend. Ordinarily, this would not be worth noting. But ordinarily, Chinese athletes aren’t inclined to explain their performances – failed…
The Protests, the Olympics, and Race.
For all of the talk about racial tensions between Han Chinese and Tibetans, there has been surprisingly little talk about the obvious (to me) racial subtext to the anti-Chinese/pro-Tibetan protests in London, Paris, and San Francisco. But how can one miss the fact that the most vocal torch protesters (in much greater numbers than Tibetans)…
Nationals Win the Opener.
[Photo Update: I’ve been informed that not everybody recognizes the subjects of these two photos. So, just to clarify: the top one shows Chinese President Hu Jintao and Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang at today’s ceremony marking the start of the Olympic torch relay through China; the lower one shows President Bush throwing out the ceremonial…
Train Long, Lose Shortly.
Last week’s not-so-shocking news that Yao Ming has a fatigue-induced stress fracture in his left foot has generated very little in the way of recriminations in the Chinese state-owned media and sports authorities – and I can only take this as but one more example of the message (and media) restraint and discipline that has…
The Tragedy of Yao’s Left Foot
I think it’s fair to suggest that no other seven foot, six inch man (2.25m) weighing 310 lb. (140.6 kg) has played as much basketball as Yao Ming has played over the last six years. In addition to his paid obligations as a starting center on an NBA team which plays 82 games, a handful…
The Ballad of Guan Xiuchang and His Totally Fake ID(s)
[We interrupt our regularly scheduled deadline to bring you the story that I would rather be working on …] This evening, the Chinese Basketball Association took the unprecedented move of kicking Xinjiang Gunaghui (the league’s second-ranked team) out of the league playoffs after it was determined that the team broke league rules by playing three…
A lone blogger STILL asks: How old is Yi Jianlian?
Here’s the deal: we’re now three months into the rookie NBA season of 21/23/24/25/26-year-old Yi Jianlian, and the guy still refuses to answer questions about his age. That is, questions such as – brace yourself – “How old are you?” To be sure, this has been going on a while, with the most notorious dodge…
No Peking Duck for Olympic Athletes?
[UPDATED at the end of the post] I’m a fan of the Beijing Olympic Committee’s regular press releases, if only because – amongst the hail of platitudes – you occasionally get a gem like the one issued on November 9. Entitled “Chinese cuisine to highlight Olympic menu,” it then spent two paragraphs explaining why it…
Marathon Air Quality
Over at WorldChanging, Mara Hvistendahl asks: “As an amateur runner in Shanghai’s half-marathon on Sunday, I wasn’t overly concerned with my time. But what was I doing to my lungs?” Her answer is an interesting essay that touches on Beijing’s efforts to improve its air quality in advance of the Olympics, what it feels like…