Image source,Reuters
The sixth place in the Olympic 100-meter sprint final is usually not the focus, but this time is different. He became the first Chinese to enter the men’s 100-meter sprint final in the history of the Olympic Games. It is also the first time an Asian athlete has entered the Olympic 100-meter final since the Olympics adopted electronic timekeeping.
This Olympics may be the most important one for China, and the changes reflected in many aspects make it even more significant than the Beijing Olympics.
First of all, we must clarify a question, why do we hold the Olympic Games?
As a social animal, competition and cooperation are the background colors for human beings. Cooperation is often presented in the form of trade, while competition is mostly carried out in the form of war. In the 19th and 20th centuries, human society as a whole crossed the threshold of modernity. The Olympic Games met a need-to satisfy the competitive nature in a peaceful way. Another product of modernization is the nation-state, so sports competition with the country as a unit has become one of the most important activities in the world.
Secondly, why are countries keen to participate in the Olympics? Because this is an excellent stage to gather a sense of national identity.
In the early days of the Industrial Revolution, people separated from their land and clan and participated in the social division of labor as individuals, but still yearned for a sense of ethnic identity, so football became popular and became a weapon for cohesive urban emerging classes. This is why the world‘s first football club was born in Sheffield, the first coal and steel town in the United Kingdom.
In the same way, after World War I, nation-states emerged. After World War II, colonies became independent. A large number of newly established countries urgently needed to unite the people through sports victories on the international stage. China also has this demand, which is why in 1959 Rong Guotuan won the World Table Tennis Championships (China’s first “world champion”) and became a national event. Zhou Enlai even thought that Rong Guotuan’s victory could be compared with the tenth anniversary of the National Day, so he established a table tennis racket brand “Double Happiness” that year.
Why are Chinese female athletes twice as many as men
In the 1980s, the country reopened and the atmosphere changed. After 1952, China participated in the Olympic Games again. After a lapse of 32 years, he appeared in Los Angeles, won 15 gold, and achieved remarkable results. Li Ning alone won three golds, two silvers and one bronze, and was the first individual medal of the year. However, the Soviet Union led the socialist countries to boycott the Olympic Games, which dilutes the “gold content” of the gold medal a lot. Sure enough, he went to the Seoul Olympics again in 1988, and China only won the hardware.
However, this does not hinder the Chinese people’s enthusiasm for Olympic gold medals, just like China’s economic pursuit and obsession with the “Fortune 500” after reform and opening up. This enthusiasm is not about sports itself, but an eagerness to pass the gold medal to gather a sense of identity and enhance self-confidence. At that time, China was repressed for many years, and when it was placed internationally, it had to do nothing in various fields, so the demand in this area was extremely strong.
So, how to increase the number of gold medals? China researched it and found out that it is necessary to take advantage of it. In other words, which project is less competitive, and which one should be engaged. A gold medal on a trampoline is no different from a gold medal on basketball, but the difficulty is worlds apart. Therefore, China focuses on “small, smart, difficult, female, and few” projects and strives to cultivate talents.
Especially for women’s projects, the social reality of inequality between men and women makes women’s projects in various countries less involved and less training intensity than men, which has become the direction of China’s efforts. This influence continues to this day, which is why the number of female athletes in the Chinese delegation at this Olympic Games is twice as high as that of male athletes.
Gold medal utilitarianism is not right or wrong. For the latecomer countries, this strategy can bring huge social benefits. But on a personal level, the side effects are not small. Because losing is not only about personal honor and disgrace, but also about national honor. The pursuit of the mountain whistling tsunami may become overwhelming abuse after failure.
This is why after Li Ning was in Seoul, someone mailed him a rope to hang him; after Lang Ping lost to the Japanese women’s volleyball team at the Bangkok Asian Games, the audience wrote that she was “the impeccable Beijing No. 4”. Even in 2008, Liu Xiang, who repeatedly broke the 110-meter hurdles record, was scolded for several years after retiring due to injury.
Image source,Reuters
Although he ranked sixth in the finals, China’s Su Bingtian’s semi-final results and entry into the Olympic 100m finals still made history.
The sixth “God”
Thirteen years have passed, and many things have changed for China. In this Olympics, the ranking of the gold medal list is no longer the only concern of Chinese netizens. Even if China dominates the list for many days, even if it is overtaken by the United States on the last day, it has not aroused much discussion. On the contrary, in the United States, there has been a small storm about how the medal list should be sorted.
Also, which Chinese athlete has received the most attention this year? Judging from the popularity of the Internet, it seems that it is the men’s 100m contestant Su Bingtian, who ranked sixth in 9.98 seconds in the final.
Su Bingtian didn’t even touch the bronze medal, but was called “Su Shen” and “Su Bingtian yyds” by Chinese netizens (Internet term: eternal god).
Does any “God” rank sixth? But in the eyes of many Chinese, ranking sixth is also their “god”.
Because this is a project that China is almost destined to never get a gold medal. In the sprint event, Hispanic athletes have an overwhelming advantage. Among the almost 160 people who ran into the 10-second mark in history, those who are not Hispanic are only single digits. In 2010, there was the first white person to break 10, namely Lemetri of France; in 2015, the first yellow person to break 10 was Su Bingtian.
Getty
The number of runners who run within 10 seconds in the men’s 100-meter sprint is rapidly increasing
Source: World Athletics Federation
Therefore, it is Su Bingtian’s long-cherished wish to stand on the runway of the Olympic 100-meter final; therefore, even if the shadow of the medal was not touched, the Chinese audience did not hesitate to applaud.
What is more worth thinking about is that Su Bingtian and his teammates Xie Zhenye, Ge Manqi, and Liang Xiaojing may have realized that their entire Olympic career may not be destined to win medals at the moment when they choose the sprint event. But this did not stop them from training hard, self-disciplined life, and then enjoying the track. Just like the Olympic motto-“faster, higher, stronger”, oh yes, “more united” will be added in the future.
What’s interesting is that the two athletes who have been hurt by the “gold medal standardism” in the past also ushered in some reversals. As the women’s volleyball coach, Lang Ping broke down in the group stage and retired with tears and apologies, but most of the comments were that “Lang Ping does not owe us an apology” and “Women’s volleyball team needs you”, instead asking to reflect on the local sports selection mechanism. In the track and field, the audience was shocked that after 17 years the 110-meter hurdles record was still Liu Xiang, the topic of “Oweing Liu Xiang an apology” was top searched.
Image source,Getty Images
The men’s doubles Li Junhui and Liu Yuchen lost to Chinese Taipei in the final, which also “stinged” many netizens and made them targets of attacks.
“Gold medals are important, and those who struggle are worthy of praise”
Don’t get me wrong, this does not mean that the abuse has disappeared. It is even more conspicuous because of the Internet, such as table tennis mixed doubles. After China failed against Japan, Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen apologized after the game, but they still ushered in a lot of abuse. For example, the men’s doubles Li Junhui and Liu Yuchen lost to Chinese Taipei in the final, which also “stinged” many netizens and made them the targets of attacks. This also reflects that political issues such as Sino-Japanese relations and cross-strait relations still affect the Chinese people’s attitude towards the Olympics to a certain extent.
But throughout the Olympics, the main public opinion has undergone an obvious change. NetEase’s user research platform conducted a questionnaire survey on 500 netizens. 62% believed that “Gold medals are important, and those who struggle are worthy of praise”, and 35.9% believed that “winning or losing is not important, doing your best is the best”, with only 2.2 % Believes that “comments that win or lose are not important are not conducive to athletes competing for the first place.”
A senior Chinese media person Zhang Feng wrote an article commenting that this is undoubtedly a kind of progress, which may have started in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. At that time, China was firmly at the top of the gold medal list, which greatly satisfied the national pride of the Chinese people. Since then, China has started to ” Freed from “Only Gold Medal Theory”, and began to perceive the charm of the Olympics more three-dimensionally.
“When you no longer believe in the’gold medal theory’, you will really understand the Olympics.” Zhang Feng said.
Image source,Reuters
Su Bingtian became the first Asian local player to “break the 10” in 2015. Since then, his competitive level has been maintained, scoring 10 seconds seven times before the Tokyo Olympics.
In the end, this change seems to have been confirmed by the government-Su Bingtian was selected as the standard bearer at the closing ceremony.
This candidate itself also represents a change. From 1984 to 2000, the closing flag bearers of the five Olympics were all men’s basketball players. At this time, the selection criteria were not based on personal performance, but intended to show the image through a tall figure. In 2004, Liu Xiang, the gold medalist in the 100-meter hurdles, was a badminton gold medalist. In 2008, Zhang Ning was a badminton gold medalist. In 2012, he was a sailing gold medalist Xu Lijia. In 2016, he was a table tennis women’s singles gold medalist Ding Ning.
In 2021, it will be the sixth-ranked “Su Shen” who may never win the gold medal.