Medals are less important than breakthroughs in new fields. Even though China didn’t win many medals in athletics this time, we saw breakthroughs and records broken in multiple areas China isn’t traditionally competitive in.
2020/2021 Tokyo Summer Olympics
- Thread starter Strangelove
- Start date
Sports performance and space program achievements are the soft power of a country. It makes people around the world respect you. India is laughed at for their Olympics performance and seen as weak. Olympics and space program are areas people have a great interest in and doing well in these areas will earn respect. During the Cold War it was in Olympics and space program where they competed to show who was the best.
antiterror13
Brigadier
Honestly, if the US is winning the most medals overall it's probably going to win the most golds. I understand a lot of people made fun of the NYT and WaPo for using total medals to rank, and those outlets totally deserved it, but total medals is a measure of breadth of competitiveness. The more sports you can compete at the top level in, the more likely you will get the most golds too.
It's sad that karate is gone though. We need more Asian sports in the games.
It's sad that karate is gone though. We need more Asian sports in the games.
Funny, if you replaced 'China' for 'India', you hear the Indians say echo the exact same sentiment, that medal count don't matter, no real benefit, India will still surpass China as a superpower, that other fields matter more. Funny how Indians think the same way too.
The only difference is the world laughs at Indians as small and physically weak. While nobody can laugh at China. This is worth immeasurable soft power and respect that Indians secretly dream of but cannot achieve.
I agree, one or two gold medals is meaningless in grand scheme of things, but THANK GOD I am not an Indian. I can't imagine the cognitive dissonance of trying to defend such an abysmal Olympic record while shouting Jai Hind Super Powah 20XX status at the same time.
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I’m ok with karate if they didn’t enforce such stupid rules in the game. The Saudi player literally lost the gold medal because he knocked out his opponent. I mean seriously???
manqiangrexue
Brigadier
Saw that. I was thinking yeah, China lost by some bad judging but at least we didn't lose a fight were we knocked the other guy out. There are memes all over the Chinese internet with the Japanese gymnast and his foot out of bounds; imagine the uproar if a Chinese guy KO'd his Japanese opponent in karate only for the judges to tell him he lost... That's when Chinese people stop watching the Olympics cus that's no ordinary level of rigging.
Interesting update about Shi Zhiyong, the only Chinese lifter to smash the world record: he injured his hamstring 35 days out from competition. He took 18 days off, rehabbed for 3 days, then trained for 14 days prior to competition. In that period, he had only clean and jerked 150kg 3 times, 160kg once, and 180kg once. That's right, 5 full clean and jerks in 14 days. When he did some pulls in the training hall, opponents thought that Shi was taking it easy, but he knew that that was the heaviest he had pulled for over a month. On competition day, he had warmed his clean and jerk up to 160kg, expecting 5 more lifts before his turn but everyone went up and he had to go out 28kg heavier than his last warm up at 188. He thought he couldn't make it; he said his form was shit, but he made it, and after that, he knew he was back and ready to do the world record. Before, he had no idea how much he had left in him. The most impressive part to this story is Chinese sport science, which told him to train that way around injury to success. Almost unimaginable to most coaches to lift and test yourself so little at such a crucial time.
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manqiangrexue
Brigadier
Interview with 37 year old 3x Olympic champion Lv Xiaojun:
He says the weights felt very light that day. Coach wanted him to open 165 snatch, he said he bet his coach he can power snatch 160 and asked if he could demonstrate it now in the warm-up room, could they go 170, 174, 177WR as he wants? His coach declined, told him to be safe and get the gold. He opened 165 and missed because it was so light it didn't feel right. Then he got serious and did 165, 170kg. Clean and jerk, he said 204 felt light; he was confident he could do 210. He was ready to do 210 if Pizzolato succeeded, but Pizzolato failed, so with the euphoria of being 3x Olympic champion in him, he wasn't mentally prepared anymore. Still, he gave it a shot, and it felt reasonably light on the clean and recover but at the top, he felt a little wobble in his back to he dumped it. Health is most important and he was already champ so no need to fight.
Most impressively, in 1 month, we will see him again at the Chinese national games competing to extend his reign. He says if all goes well, he plans to be at the world's next year and then, onwards to the 2024 Paris Games, where he will be 40. He'll quit when his body tells him it's time and his numbers aren't enough anymore but not just because other people think he's too old.
He says the weights felt very light that day. Coach wanted him to open 165 snatch, he said he bet his coach he can power snatch 160 and asked if he could demonstrate it now in the warm-up room, could they go 170, 174, 177WR as he wants? His coach declined, told him to be safe and get the gold. He opened 165 and missed because it was so light it didn't feel right. Then he got serious and did 165, 170kg. Clean and jerk, he said 204 felt light; he was confident he could do 210. He was ready to do 210 if Pizzolato succeeded, but Pizzolato failed, so with the euphoria of being 3x Olympic champion in him, he wasn't mentally prepared anymore. Still, he gave it a shot, and it felt reasonably light on the clean and recover but at the top, he felt a little wobble in his back to he dumped it. Health is most important and he was already champ so no need to fight.
Most impressively, in 1 month, we will see him again at the Chinese national games competing to extend his reign. He says if all goes well, he plans to be at the world's next year and then, onwards to the 2024 Paris Games, where he will be 40. He'll quit when his body tells him it's time and his numbers aren't enough anymore but not just because other people think he's too old.
FriedRiceNSpice
Captain
There's a huge difference between being consistently in the top three versus struggling to win a single medal. To be taken seriously as a superpower, China needs to be a strong performer in the games. This does not necessarily mean that China has to be number one. Being able to remain consistently in the top three is sufficient.
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