Looking back: China's top 10 sports stories in 2009
Monday, 21st December 2009 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
The Bird's Nest is just one of a growing number of white elephants in China. Jinan's Olympic Stadium, above, was built for this year's National Games.
1. Chinese soccer league match fixing
Bribery, match fixing, betting—the Chinese Soccer League has long been tainted with some of sport's worst scourges. In November, police arrested 16 players, coaches and officials in an attempt to clean up the league. But observers say that a lot more still needs to be done.
2.Chinese swimming makes a splash in Rome
When Zhang Lin became China's first male swimming world champ in Rome this summer--winning the 800-meter freestyle in world record time--media quickly crowned him the Liu Xiang of the pool. But unlike Liu, Zhang had some backup from his teammates, as China put in its best ever performance at the world meet. With 4 golds and 10 medals, China was behind only the United States and Germany. Though Zhang Lin dominated the headlines, it was the women—led by Liu Zige and Zhao Jing--who were responsible for China's breakout. Female swimmers accounted for all but two of China's medals, and three of the four golds.
3. Diving judging scandal
China's national games diving competition was shaken up when one judge quit late in the competition, and then leveled accusations that results were fixed and that Zhou Jihong, head of the Chinese diving federation, calls all the shots.
4. Sports official spills secrets
Former national volleyball coach and long-time senior sports administration leader Yuan Weimin published his memoir, "Yuan Weimin: Storms of the Chinese Sports World" in October. Among the stories in Yuan's memoir that are making sports officials squirm is the tale of a shady vote-trading arrangement that put Belgium's Jacques Rogge at the head of the International Olympic Committee and brought the 2008 games to Beijing.
4. Empty Nest
The Beijing Olympics' iconic building, Beijing National Stadium--aka the Bird's Nest, aka a $400 million project that takes $70 million to maintain annually, aka a venue that required the relocation of thousands of families—has hosted only four events since the games ended 16 months ago (including an opera and a martial arts show that couldn't have possibly turned a profit). The situation is so bad that in the fall, the state took back operating control of the venue from its private owners.
5. Liu Xiang's return
A grimacing Liu Xiang limping around the Bird's Nest track was one of the most potent images of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. The former Olympic and world record holder in the 110-meter hurdles, an athlete who rivals Yao Ming in prominence in China, was unable to run because of an injury to his Achilles tendon. More than a year later, he put doubts to rest about whether his career was finished, returning to competition in the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix, where he finished second in a 13.15-second photo finish.
6. China win's women's curling worlds
Curling? On a top 10 list? Stick with me here… When China's women's curling team won world championships last year, skipper Wang Bingyu and her teammates became instant media stars on the mainland. The current team is China's first generation of curlers, and if Canada doesn't figure out how to beat them at the 2010 Winter Olympics, curling will become only the second team sport in which China has won an Olympic gold medal (women's volleyball being the other, in 1984 and 2004).
7. Dealmaker Kenny Huang
Last May, news broke that a Chinese investor was nearing a deal to purchase a 15 percent stake in the Cleveland Cavaliers NBA franchise. That investor was Huang Jianhua, or Kenny Huang, who subsequently made a deal to promote youth baseball with the Chinese Baseball Association and to purchase a team in the Chinese Basketball Association. Last week, reports indicated that the Cavs purchase might go through before the end of the year. The lead on the deal is now Albert Hung, but Huang's still very much involved and seems to have dreams of a Chinese sports empire--keep an eye on this guy.
9. HSBC Champions
Shanghai's HSBC Champions golf tournament was elevated this year to World Golf Championship status, with $7 million in prize money. Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els finished first and second, and China got its last look at a squeaky clean Tiger Woods, who finished sixth. In his reporting on the event for ESPN, Shanghaiist editor Dan Washburn wrote that the event was well timed, as the inclusion of golf in the Olympics could provide a boost to the sport's popularity and official support here. HSBC Champions returns to Shanghai next year, which means it will take place alongside the Shanghai World Expo.
10. China disappears from the NBA
While Huang buys his way into the NBA, Chinese players are limping out. Yao Ming is missing the current season with a foot fracture, and the Nets' Yi Jianlian played just four games before sitting out at least the next 24 with injuries. The next great hope, Sun Yue, was dropped by the Lakers, then picked up and dropped by the New York Knicks. The NBA could really use another once-in-a-lifetime athlete like Yao right about now.
Related:
Zhang Lin, China's first male swimming champ
China Daily: Enthusiasm fades for Bird's Nest
LA Times on Yuan Weimin
ESPN.go.com: Olympics makes China major player in golf
Tags: Bird's Nest, curling, Dan Washburn, football, HSBC Champions, Huang Jianhua, Kenny Huang, Liu Xiang, Liu Zige, NBA, soccer, Sun Yue, Yi Jianlian, Yuan Weimin, Zhang Lin
Zhang Lin, China's first male swimming champ
Friday, 31st July 2009 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Zhang Lin on the front page of Titan sports news, next to the headline: Lin's Breakthrough
Zhang is drawing comparisons to Liu Xiang and Yao Ming as a trailblazing Chinese athlete. And with both the hurdler and the basketball star nursing major injuries, Zhang is undoubtedly China's top active sportsman (sorry, Yi Jianlian). Look for him on ice cream commercials and city bus advertisements soon. He swims again Sunday in the 1,500, an event in which he placed 7th at the Beijing games. In a rare case of collar-popping by a Chinese coach, his coach is predicting another win Sunday, according to Hong Kong newspaper The Standard
Getting less press is Zhao Jing, who took the gold and set a new world record in the women's 50-meter backstroke (27.06 seconds). China's women have won four medals at the games—Liu Zige's silver in the 200 butterfly, a one-three finish for Zhao and Gao Chang in the 50 backstroke, and a gold medal for the four-by-200 backstroke relay team.
Here's a look at a few more Chinese newspapers that highlighted Zhang's win.
Beijing Evening News: After waiting for years, Zhang Lin can finally exhale
Beijing Youth Daily: Lin's Breakthrough
Literally, "Zhang Lin sword-fingers 1,500 meters." Basically, he's ready to take on the next challenge.
The Beijing Evening news gave the women's 4X200 the front page, but no headline.
Tags: Gao Chang, Liu Zige, swimming, swimming world championships, world record, Zhang Lin, Zhao Jing
Day 6: More gold, more records for China
Thursday, 14th August 2008 ~ Chris ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
As of 6:45 pm Beijing time, China held its lead in the gold medal race, with 22, well ahead of second-place Team USA's 10 golds. South Korea, Italy and Germany were tied for third with six golds each.In terms of overall medals won, China retook the lead from the US, with 34 medals compared to the Americans' 33. South Korea and Australia were tied for third with a total of 16 medals each.
Yang Wei wins men's individual gymnastics competition
Yang Wei (杨威), who took gymnastics gold with his teammates on August 12, won the men's individual competition today. Although Yang is known for his consistent performance across all six disciplines, he came close to disaster in the last, the horizontal bar. Close to losing his grip, he held on to bring China its first men's all-round gold since Li Xiaoshuang 李小双 at the Atlanta games in 1996.
Chinese women swim into the record books
In the swimming pool, Liu Zige (刘子歌) won gold with a world record time of two minutes 04.18 seconds in the women's 200m butterfly. Her teammate Jiao Liuyang (焦刘洋) from Harbin took silver, also beating the previous world record. The ousted world record holder, Jessicah Schipper of Australia, took bronze.
Fourth shooting gold for China
Du Li (杜丽), having unsuccessfully defended her Olympic title in the 10 meter air rifle competition on August 9, today took gold in the 50 meter rifle three positions (prone, standing, kneeling) event. She did it in style too, with a new Olympic record of 690.3 points.
Zhang Juanjuan pulls off archery upset
27th-seeded Zhang Juanjuan (张娟娟) outshot top seed Park Sung-hyun of South Korea for a surprise win in archery's women's individual competition Thursday. Zhang scored 110 of a possible 120 points with Park taking the silver with 109 and her South Korean teammate Yun Ok-hee winning bronze.
Yang Wei image: The Australian
Liu Zige image: french.peopledaily.com.cn
Du Li image: 2008.sina.com.cn
Tags: Du Li, Jiao Liuyang, Li Xiaoshuang, Liu Zige, Yang Wei
China's women swimmers challenging US, Australia dominance
Thursday, 14th August 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (2)
Chinese women are having a great morning in the pool, notching two silvers, a gold and a new world record. China only won two swimming medals in the 2004 Olympics.
Gold medallist Liu Zige
Liu Zige (刘子歌) won gold and Jiao Liuyang won silver in the women's 200 meters butterfly competition, in a rare 1-2 finish for Chinese swimmers. Liu swam a 2:04.18, a new world record and Jiao a 2:04.72.
China went on to win silver in another women's event, the 4 X 200 meters freestyle relay, with a time of 7:45.93. Gold went to Australia, and silver to the United States. Among the men, China's Wu Peng failed to medal in the 200 meter butterfly final, coming in more than two seconds behind bronze medal winner Takeshi Matsuda of Japan.
It should come as no surprise that China is having breakthroughs in the pool at this Olympics. Swimming offers 84 medals, making it a good target for China's effort to lead the gold and overall medal counts. The Chinese Swimming Association keeps its athletes out of most major international competition, so their best times were largely unknown before the games.
Unfortunately, this leads to some suspicion in the swimming world as to whether the athletes are clean. China has had some history with doping scandals, with positive tests after the team stormed the 1994 FINA World Championships, and with backstroker Ouyang Kunpeng failing a drug test earlier this year.
In the other pool, Ying Tung Natatorium, China's women's water polo team pulled off a major upset, beating a strong Russian team, 13-11. China had given reigning world champions the United States a scare two days before, losing by only one point, 12-11.
Image: Chinese Swimming Association
Tags: Beijing Olympics, doping, Jiao Liuyang, Liu Zige, Ouyang Kunpeng, swimming, water polo, Ying Tung Natatorium