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Council for a Legit National Games

Tuesday, 27th October 2009 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)

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Ok, there is no such organization, but there should be. First, there was the diving coach who quit over believable but unproven allegations that aquatics commission deputy director Zhou Jihong runs the competition like a puppeteer (Corruption scandal hits Chinese diving). Then, there was news of three cases of doping. Performance-enhancing drugs are a problem across the sports world, but China's national games officials made a joke of the event's drug policing practices by requiring athletes to take a written drug test. There are actual, drug tests as well, though, and they netted the following:

Guo Linna, a rower from Henan, was the first to fail a drug test at the games. Her positive result led to the withdrawal of her team from competition. (Reuters: Chinese rower fails doping test at National Games)

Wang Jing, a sprinter from Fujian province, was stripped of her 100 meter gold after a positive drug test. She's also been banned from the sport for life.

Li Jie, a pistol shooter from Inner Mongolia, tested positive for propranolol, a beta blocker used to prevent trembling (China Daily: Inner Mongolia stay despite positive test in National Games)

The diving allegations may be false, and the testing may have caught all the cheats (both unlikely, though), but there's another element that skews the results of the national games. Two teams--the host province and the People's Liberation Army team--get a leg up on the competition because they are free to recruit athletes nationally, instead of being limited to one province. With all but a few medals awarded, Shandong is on top in both golds (63) and overall medals (148). The PLA is in second place, with 49 golds and 120 overall. I'm not sure how long the host cities have enjoyed this privilege, but hosts have now topped the final gold medal count four times in a row.

China.org.cn: Doping, match fixing challenge China's efforts to ensure clean National Games

Tags: cheating, doping, national games, PLA, Zhou Jihong