Yao quitting the Chinese national team?
Friday, 24th October 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Chinese media (beginning, reportedly, with Shanghai's Oriental Sports Daily) began reporting earlier this week that Yao Ming had announced plans to quit the Chinese national team.The center has since denied the reports to the Houston Chronicle. But his denial wasn't too forceful.
"I haven't announced that," he told the Chronicle. "I think now there is no national team and all I want to worry about is playing 82 games and the playoffs."
Yao had made comments to the Houston Chronicle before playing in his third Olympics earlier this year, indicating that this would be his last Olympic appearance. He will be almost 32 years old when the next games take place in 2012 in London. And with injuries dragging down his NBA career, including a broken foot that nearly kept him out of the Olympics, it's not much of a stretch to think the big guy might need a break.
In other Yao news, his doctor in Houston is reportedly seeing Liu Xiang next week, to see if he can help the injured hurdler.
Tags: basketball, Houston Chronicle, Liu Xiang, Olympics, Yao Ming
Olympics celebrated one more time for Golden Week
Wednesday, 1st October 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Gold medals for staying awake
Having more fun that China's outstanding athletes are the millions on vacation this week. And for those who spend the holiday in Beijing, the government has opened Olympic venues to the public this week.
The Golden Week festivities are taking place amid talk of one ugly piece of Olympic news—the possibility (er, likelihood?) that officials knew about but covered upmelamine-contaminated milk that has sickened tens of thousands of Chinese children, at least in part to keep bad news out of the media during the games.
Tags: Beijing Olympics, Golden Week, National Day, Olympics
Guo Jingjing denies Hong Kong 2012 rumors
Monday, 1st September 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
If Guo Jingjing (郭晶晶) isn't in the pool, she must be in the tabloids. Post-Olympic rumors have the diver taking her gold medals and moving to Hong Kong, where the buzz is that she may marry her boyfriend Kenneth Fok and compete for Hong Kong in the 2012 Olympics.According to this AFP story she has denied the rumors, saying at a press conference in Hong Kong: "I have no plan to move to Hong Kong. I am still a member of China's national diving team and there will be many new plans and new goals to follow."
Will she or won't she? Guo on a post-Olympic HK media tour
But because the next best thing to actual news about China's top-earning female athlete is speculation about possible news, the papers are not letting this one rest.
Some Hong Kong media are reporting that Guo's wedding plans have "entered the final sprint, with a wedding next September [2009]," according to a report on mainland sports portal Titan24. Moreover, the reports assert that Guo will not retire as the reigning "queen of diving" but will become a Hong Kong resident and represent Hong Kong in the 2012 Olympics in London.
"As soon as the Chinese Olympic champion representative group touched down at Hong Kong's airport, Guo Jingjing became Hong Kong media's number one target," the report said, "This has become the hottest topic of conversation among Hong Kong's sport and media circles."
According to that story, Guo has not been clear on whether she intends to marry or whether she'll compete in London at all.
The story also cited inside sources saying that should Guo want to represent HK in London, she'll need to talk with the China Olympic Committee and China Swimming Association. Conventional wisdom in China's sports circles seems to be suggesting that should she want to represent HK, neither organization will give her much trouble.
This is likely because she'll be 31 years old in 2012, and is unlikely to be perceived as a major gold medal threat.
Guo Jingjing image: Singtaonet
Tags: diving, Guo Jingjing, Kenneth Fok, Olympics, 郭晶晶
Olympic marketing: How did sportswear brands do?
Friday, 29th August 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
For sports apparel brands, the Olympics are arguably the most important stage for marketing. So how did the sports marketers fare with the Chinese market in these Olympics? Here's a look at how things played out for Adidas, Li-Ning, Nike, Puma and Speedo.Adidas
Adidas reportedly shelled out 70 million euros to be an official Olympic sponsor. Adidas gear was also all over Olympians, great for television. But aside from shoes and uniforms, Adidas wasn't particularly visible in Olympic venues. It had no special presence on the Olympic Green, but its beautiful flagship store in Sanlitun near the Workers' Stadium and Workers' Gymnasium saw lots of foot traffic.
Adidas' Olympic sponsorship allowed it to use the Bird's Nest and Olympic logo.
Its Olympic ad campaign, though beautifully designed and fitting in concept (Together in 2008, Impossible is Nothing), came up short in the personnel categories. That campaign had four primary faces, in sports that are very popular in China--diver Hu Jia, footballer Zheng Zhi, basketball player Sui Feifei and a few women's volleyball players. Hu pulled out due to injury, Zheng and the men's football team had an embarrassing performance and Sui Feifei was only sixth in scoring on Team China. The women's volleyball team played strong in a very tough field, but in the end only came through with the minimum result acceptable to the hometown fans, a bronze medal.
Li-Ning
China's biggest sports apparel brand had the biggest marketing coup of the games—its founder, Li Ning, carrying the Olympic flame on a three-minute slow-motion run to the top of the Bird's Nest, where he lit the Olympic cauldron. The company's stock went up the next day, and Li Ning will always have his stamp on what seems to be an especially important part of the Olympics to Chinese fans.
Li-Ning's storefronts were generic during the games, but there was nothing generic about its opening ceremony product placement.
Li Ning also had its name on the uniforms of China's diving and table tennis teams, who delivered dominant performances, as well as the Spanish national basketball team, which gave Team USA a tough match before losing in the gold medal game.
Nike
Nike's two biggest bets on Chinese athletes were Yi Jianlian and Liu Xiang. Yi was solid but not explosive, averaging 9 points a game. The Chinese national team, wearing Nike jerseys, didn't really exceed expectations, but certainly didn't come up short, making it to the quarterfinals before losing to Lithuania. But Chinese fans were more excited about catching a glimpse of Team USA, who were also sporting Nike's hot new jersey, available in stores all over Beijing.
Nike had to deal with the toughest spin job of any Olympic marketer this year—how to salvage its investment in China's biggest sports star, Liu Xiang, when he didn't even compete in the games. Nike's immediate answer--a full page ad celebrating the love of sport even in defeat--succeeded in becoming part of the stream of catharsis after Liu bowed out. Nike got some negative publicity for its efforts to hunt down netizens who alleged that the shoe company had coerced Liu to drop out rather than lose to Robles.
Nike hedged its big-name bets by backing lesser-known athletes as well.
But Liu and Yi weren't the only athletes that Nike put is name behind. It was all over team China, and ready with full-page ads in China Daily and front-page ads in Titan sports news when any of its athletes won a medal or had a strong performance. Swimmer Zhang Lin (silver medalist), boxer Zou Shiming (gold medalist) and beach volleyball duo Tian Jia and Wang Fei (silver medalists) were just a few of the lower-profile high-achieving athletes that Nike celebrated in its Olympic campaign.
Puma
Dollar for dollar, Puma might have gotten the most of its Olympic investment. Its hopes ran on two spiked shoes-- those of sprinter Usain Bolt, who loped across the finish line to set the 100-meter dash world record. China loves a winner, and Bolt and the dominant Jamaican team were very well-received in Beijing. Jacques Rogge can complain all he wants, but most Chinese don't mind a guy who's willing to revel in his moment.
Speedo
If you weren't wearing a Speedo LZR Racer in this Olympics, you might as well never leave the Water Cube's warm-up pool. Nine out of every 10 swimming gold medals went to LZR wearers. The only complaint that people had about the LZR was that it made swimmers too fast, world records too common. The suit was considered such an integral part of success that Nike agreed to let its swimmers wear LZRs instead of Nike suits. Speedo doesn't have a big presence at Chinese sports retailers—swimwear here tends to be generic instead of branded—but China, along with the rest of the world, has no choice but to see Speedo as the leader in swimwear technology.
Tags: Adidas, athletics, Beijing Olympics, Hu Jia, Li-Ning, Liu Xiang, marketing, Nike, Olympics, Puma, Speedo, Sui Feifei, swimming, Tian Jia, Titan, Usain Bolt, volleyball, Wang Fei, Zhang Lin, Zheng Zhi, Zou Shiming
Yao on the Olympic hangover
Monday, 25th August 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
After seven years of preparation, hype and a call to "spread Olympic culture," whatever that is, China woke up this morning in a post-2008 Olympics world.Even if you live in China, it's difficult as a foreigner to understand what hosting the games really meant to many people here. The Houston Chronicle's Fran Blinebury asked Yao Ming how he feels about the party being over, and got a weighty response, including these words:
"We have spent so many years preparing for this event and now it is over. I have just played in the most important competition of my career. Is my life over?
"I know that's not true. I know that sounds silly. But I guess you have to be Chinese to understand part of that feeling now and maybe you have to be me to know it all."
"I know that's not true. I know that sounds silly. But I guess you have to be Chinese to understand part of that feeling now and maybe you have to be me to know it all."
The whole story, which essentially reads as a monologue from Yao on his thought about the games, can be found at Chron.com.
Tags: Beijing Olympics, Olympics, Yao Ming
Beijing Olympics golden for China
Sunday, 24th August 2008 ~ Chris ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
On the final day of competition, China took two gold medals and a silver in women's rhythmic gymnastics to end up with a total of 51 gold medals and 100 medals overall – its best Olympic medal haul to date. Number two United States and number three Russian Federation trailed China with 36 and 23 golds, respectively.
In terms of total medals, the US took the most medals, with 110, followed by China with 100. The Russian Federation took the third-largest number of medals with 72.
Zou Shiming wins China's first boxing gold
Zou Shiming ( 邹市明) made Chinese sports history on the last day of the Beijing Olympics by claiming the country's first gold medal in boxing. Zou was declared winner in the second round when light-flyweight opponent Serdamba Purevdorj of Mongolia pulled out of the match due to an injury sustained in a previous match.
China's Zou Shiming won China's first boxing gold today by defeating Mongolia's Serdamba Purevdorj in the final of the light-flyweight class. Zou hit Purevdorj with a combo of punches in the first round, earning one point.
"I wanted to give the spectators a wonderful show, but I did not expect that my opponent would get injured," Zou said. "However, the gold medal is the most important thing."
Zhang Xiaoping picks up second boxing gold for China
Shortly after Zou Shiming gave China its first taste of boxing gold, light heavyweight Zhang Xiaoping (张小平) quickly added another gold medal in boxing by beating Kenny Egan of Ireland 11 to 7.
"I'm really excited," said Zhang, "before the Olympic Games, I was just a normal athlete but now I am a gold medalist. I was perfect today and did very well psychologically and physically. Throughout the Games, I fought with 100 per cent of my skills. I put myself in a low position and tried my best to fight against my opponent."
Zou Shiming image: Xinhua
Tags: boxing, Olympics, Zhang Xiaoping, Zou Shiming
Aussie denies China diving sweep
Sunday, 24th August 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Matthew Mitcham of Australia
Image: BOCOG
Tags: Beijing Olympics, diving, Huo Liang, Matthew Mitcham, Olympics, Zhou Luxin
Inside National Stadium for the Liu Xiang-less race
Friday, 22nd August 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
I got extremely lucky about a month before the games started, when a friend of a friend sold me a pair of tickets at face value for last night's athletics (track and field) event at National Stadium in Beijing, aka the Bird's Nest.It was the night that Liu Xiang would have defended his 110-meter hurdles gold from 2004. It was supposed to be a showdown between Liu—who had been elevated to superhuman status in China over the past four years—and world record holder Dayron Robles of Cuba, along with the USA's Terrence Trammell. But only Robles would run, as both Liu and Trammell had pulled out with injuries.
After Liu left the stadium rather than run his preliminary heat Monday, scores of Chinese fans reportedly headed for the exits. Given that China now had no man in the race, and no medal contenders in any of the evening's finals, attendance looked strong Thursday night, with few empty seats visible in the tk-seat stadium. The bargain basement 200-yuan tickets being sold by scalpers outside might have had something to do with it.
I took my seat in the third tier. It was my first time inside the Bird's Nest, and I have good news to report: Even up near the ceiling, the view of the track and the field is pretty good. The nosebleeds in the stadium are much better than the ones in the nearby Water Cube.
Throughout the course of the evening, it became clear that Chinese fans appreciate the stellar sprint performance that Jamaica has had this year. After Chinese athletes, it was the runners in yellow and green who got the loudest cheers.
Despite the fact that Liu was absent, it seemed that the crowd considered his race the marquee event of the evening. After it ended, the stadium began to empty quickly. Have the Chinese actually become fans of the 110-meter hurdles race or had they been holding out hope that Liu Xiang would somehow show up? Maybe they heard about the Nike conspiracy theory and thought Jacques Rogge and the IOC would step in and give Liu a spot in the final.
Though it still seemed to be the moment that many of the spectators had come to see, when Robles crossed the finish line in 12.93 seconds, he was met with the quietest applause of any of the night's gold medalists. And my enthusiastic cheers for USA runners David Payne and David Oliver, who came in second and third, were met with long looks by my neighbors.
It must have been a bitter night for Liu Xiang fans. For Team USA, it was bittersweet. America's high moment of the evening was its gold-silver-bronze sweep of the men's 400 meters. But the lows were lower than a middle school high jump bar—both the US men and women dropped the baton in their 4 X 100 meters relay preliminary heats, ending the medal hopes of these heavily favored teams. When the men dropped their baton, it seemed to give some Chinese fans a sense of relief—I distinctly heard ripples of laughter in the stadium when the moment was replayed on the jumbotron.
Tags: 110m hurdles, athletics, Beijing Olympics, Bird's Nest, Liu Xiang, National Stadium, Olympics, track and field
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