CHINA, NATIONAL, SPORTS, The Sporting Farce - Who is Really Being Cheated?
By Liang Liang
A body fell on the tatami like a straw--with it went our belief in the spirit of sports.
October 13, 2005, in the women's 78-kg judo final of the 10th National Games, former Olympic champion Sun Fuming (from the Liaoning team) fell on the tatami, under the eyes of all the audience who supported her, after being struck by the younger player Yan Sirui (from the PLA team). The audience was astonished by the way she fell--ordered by her coach, she pretended to be beaten by Yan's slightest push, like a jackstraw. Sun lost the gold medal in a most incredible way--she gave it up.
"I saw the coach from Liaoning Province gesture at Sun, and then she gave up the competition," said Ms. Zhu, a member of the audience.
However, Sun was not a good actress. The committee pointed out the fake performance, punished the coach and announced a rematch for October 15, 2005. But Sun lost again. She used another inevitable failure to up-end the rematch, up-end all the ups and downs, and end up the whole farce.
After the final, Sun Fuming's coach, Liu Yongfu protested that, "Both of them are from Liaoning Province. No matter who wins the gold medal, it's the same. If it had been a harsh battle, it would have hurt them. Giving up the game was to protect the players. That's nothing special."
We are shocked. How can these words come from the so-called "gold-medal" coach? Does he teach the players in this way? Where is sports justice or the sporting spirit we have been after for so long?
Sports, it is not just a word about competition, achievement or glory. What's more important is that it symbolizes justice, purity, peace and friendship. It gives us a chance to praise the beauty of the human body and also a chance to show our will of transcending ourselves. That's why we can find the love of sports throughout human history. So the meaning of the competition is not merely who is the winner of the medal, but a performance of the sporting spirit.
Nonetheless, the coach and the two competitors took it as a private game within their own group, neglecting the spiritual effect they should deliver to the public. This kind of neglect leads to a very dangerous condition wherein all the participants merely long to win the game--or to say, gain their own interests, no matter what methods they adopt. And the victim who suffers the most is the sport itself because it is not the original that people have always loved.
Not only was the sporting spirit hurt by this farce, but also people's hearts.
Sun Fuming was also hurt. As an older player who won the 1996 Olympic gold medal and the 2004 Olympic copper medal, she really wanted to end her career with this gold medal of the National Games. After the final on October 13th, Sun cried out with regret: "But I have followed Coach Liu for a long time. I understood what he wanted me to do. I can't disobey his will."
In China, a player is inculcated with the idea that an individual's success, to a large extent, is owed to the coaches' effort and the cultivation by the nation. Lacking these, he or she will never reach the peak of their careers. So at some critical time, the player should obey the will of the coach, caring nothing about its rightness, or he or she would be taken as ungrateful and selfish--"individualism." This absolutely doesn't go with what we advocate: collectivism.
But this collectivism neglects both the real meaning of sports and the feeling of the players--two of the most important things we should respect. It has already pushed famous Ping-Pong player He Zhili to Japan because of a similar case. From then on, the authorities in the Ping-Pong field strictly banned this kind of fake behavior, lest other excellent players get hurt and leave. How can the same thing happen on the tatami again?
Yan Sirui was also hurt. In the whole farce, the coach was the director, Sun was the leading actress, but Yan was only a minor player, maybe only an unwitting minor role. The dramatic effect of this play has diluted the gold medal of Yan. All the effort Yan has made seems to be ignored or regarded as part of the play. Even though Yan won the rematch, people can't help doubting the real worth of this national 'champion.'
And the audience was hurt. "I bought a ticket to see the Olympic champion and looked forward to a wonderful competition. But I feel cheated," said Mr. Zhang who works in a foreign company in Nanjing.
The public feels cheated. Besides the "ideal" of the sporting spirit, there is also a more realistic thing we should obey: the sports rule. The rule is we can't betray our audience. Only by meeting our audience's needs, can we prolong the lifetime of sports. The public needs honesty, transparency, justice, and a good performance. Sports audiences don't want to be cheated, even fooled. Such cases damage the credibility of sports. If they can't believe their eyes anymore, why will they pay to see competitions?
Some people may think that we can win Olympic gold medals without the audience so it doesn't matter. Maybe we can, because nowadays these kinds of Olympic sports rely on support from the government. It won't bother them if people don't buy the tickets, because they still have food. But what if one day they are thrown to the market to feed themselves?
Let's look at professional Chinese soccer. Now that they live on the market, they can't cheat the public anymore. The soccer market, at present, is decreasing throughout China. It is very "natural" that there are a large number of vacant seats in the stadiums. The behavior of Chinese soccer has really disappointed soccer fans.
The Olympic sports don't want to hurt the potential market, do they?
Who was the writer of the farce? What was the real purpose of giving up the gold medal? Did the coach only want to protect players from a harsh battle?
According to the evaluation system of the 10th National Games, if a player from the PLA team wins a gold medal, both the PLA team and the home province of the player will be given a gold medal. In this case, if Sun had won the match, only Liaoning Province would have gotten a gold medal. So why not act as a "kind" person? What's more, Sun's days have passed but Yan is a rising star of Liaoning. Obviously, cultivating a new star has more benefits than helping an old player write a full stop of her career.
Yet this case was not the only one. In the men's over-100-kg judo competition on October 13, player Wei Xiangjun of the PLA team (the output province is Shandong) met player Shi Huayong of the Shandong team. Wei beat Shi--who intentionally gave up--in no more than one second. Another judo player said, "Obviously, this will save Wei's strength. It is the same for Shandong Province no matter which one of them enters the final."
Then who is the writer of these farces? The answer is the maker of the rules. The players, the coaches and the teams are just playing by the "rules" of the game. It is the rule-makers who leave the loopholes for them. While criticizing and punishing the players and the coaches, can we perfect our rules or systems first?
The body fell on the floor like a straw. We don't want our belief and love of sports to fall the same way.
A body fell on the tatami like a straw--with it went our belief in the spirit of sports.
October 13, 2005, in the women's 78-kg judo final of the 10th National Games, former Olympic champion Sun Fuming (from the Liaoning team) fell on the tatami, under the eyes of all the audience who supported her, after being struck by the younger player Yan Sirui (from the PLA team). The audience was astonished by the way she fell--ordered by her coach, she pretended to be beaten by Yan's slightest push, like a jackstraw. Sun lost the gold medal in a most incredible way--she gave it up.
"I saw the coach from Liaoning Province gesture at Sun, and then she gave up the competition," said Ms. Zhu, a member of the audience.
However, Sun was not a good actress. The committee pointed out the fake performance, punished the coach and announced a rematch for October 15, 2005. But Sun lost again. She used another inevitable failure to up-end the rematch, up-end all the ups and downs, and end up the whole farce.
After the final, Sun Fuming's coach, Liu Yongfu protested that, "Both of them are from Liaoning Province. No matter who wins the gold medal, it's the same. If it had been a harsh battle, it would have hurt them. Giving up the game was to protect the players. That's nothing special."
We are shocked. How can these words come from the so-called "gold-medal" coach? Does he teach the players in this way? Where is sports justice or the sporting spirit we have been after for so long?
Sports, it is not just a word about competition, achievement or glory. What's more important is that it symbolizes justice, purity, peace and friendship. It gives us a chance to praise the beauty of the human body and also a chance to show our will of transcending ourselves. That's why we can find the love of sports throughout human history. So the meaning of the competition is not merely who is the winner of the medal, but a performance of the sporting spirit.
Nonetheless, the coach and the two competitors took it as a private game within their own group, neglecting the spiritual effect they should deliver to the public. This kind of neglect leads to a very dangerous condition wherein all the participants merely long to win the game--or to say, gain their own interests, no matter what methods they adopt. And the victim who suffers the most is the sport itself because it is not the original that people have always loved.
Not only was the sporting spirit hurt by this farce, but also people's hearts.
Sun Fuming was also hurt. As an older player who won the 1996 Olympic gold medal and the 2004 Olympic copper medal, she really wanted to end her career with this gold medal of the National Games. After the final on October 13th, Sun cried out with regret: "But I have followed Coach Liu for a long time. I understood what he wanted me to do. I can't disobey his will."
In China, a player is inculcated with the idea that an individual's success, to a large extent, is owed to the coaches' effort and the cultivation by the nation. Lacking these, he or she will never reach the peak of their careers. So at some critical time, the player should obey the will of the coach, caring nothing about its rightness, or he or she would be taken as ungrateful and selfish--"individualism." This absolutely doesn't go with what we advocate: collectivism.
But this collectivism neglects both the real meaning of sports and the feeling of the players--two of the most important things we should respect. It has already pushed famous Ping-Pong player He Zhili to Japan because of a similar case. From then on, the authorities in the Ping-Pong field strictly banned this kind of fake behavior, lest other excellent players get hurt and leave. How can the same thing happen on the tatami again?
Yan Sirui was also hurt. In the whole farce, the coach was the director, Sun was the leading actress, but Yan was only a minor player, maybe only an unwitting minor role. The dramatic effect of this play has diluted the gold medal of Yan. All the effort Yan has made seems to be ignored or regarded as part of the play. Even though Yan won the rematch, people can't help doubting the real worth of this national 'champion.'
And the audience was hurt. "I bought a ticket to see the Olympic champion and looked forward to a wonderful competition. But I feel cheated," said Mr. Zhang who works in a foreign company in Nanjing.
The public feels cheated. Besides the "ideal" of the sporting spirit, there is also a more realistic thing we should obey: the sports rule. The rule is we can't betray our audience. Only by meeting our audience's needs, can we prolong the lifetime of sports. The public needs honesty, transparency, justice, and a good performance. Sports audiences don't want to be cheated, even fooled. Such cases damage the credibility of sports. If they can't believe their eyes anymore, why will they pay to see competitions?
Some people may think that we can win Olympic gold medals without the audience so it doesn't matter. Maybe we can, because nowadays these kinds of Olympic sports rely on support from the government. It won't bother them if people don't buy the tickets, because they still have food. But what if one day they are thrown to the market to feed themselves?
Let's look at professional Chinese soccer. Now that they live on the market, they can't cheat the public anymore. The soccer market, at present, is decreasing throughout China. It is very "natural" that there are a large number of vacant seats in the stadiums. The behavior of Chinese soccer has really disappointed soccer fans.
The Olympic sports don't want to hurt the potential market, do they?
Who was the writer of the farce? What was the real purpose of giving up the gold medal? Did the coach only want to protect players from a harsh battle?
According to the evaluation system of the 10th National Games, if a player from the PLA team wins a gold medal, both the PLA team and the home province of the player will be given a gold medal. In this case, if Sun had won the match, only Liaoning Province would have gotten a gold medal. So why not act as a "kind" person? What's more, Sun's days have passed but Yan is a rising star of Liaoning. Obviously, cultivating a new star has more benefits than helping an old player write a full stop of her career.
Yet this case was not the only one. In the men's over-100-kg judo competition on October 13, player Wei Xiangjun of the PLA team (the output province is Shandong) met player Shi Huayong of the Shandong team. Wei beat Shi--who intentionally gave up--in no more than one second. Another judo player said, "Obviously, this will save Wei's strength. It is the same for Shandong Province no matter which one of them enters the final."
Then who is the writer of these farces? The answer is the maker of the rules. The players, the coaches and the teams are just playing by the "rules" of the game. It is the rule-makers who leave the loopholes for them. While criticizing and punishing the players and the coaches, can we perfect our rules or systems first?
The body fell on the floor like a straw. We don't want our belief and love of sports to fall the same way.
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