2008 Olympics: Beijing

[Insidious Rex]

Originally Posted by Jonathan

But we are undoubtedly very biased here in the West. Western mainstream behaviour seems to be condemning and I dare say even demonising China at all times.

I think its more about demonizing the Chinese Government then the Chinese people really. In fact much of the demonizing of the government is on behalf of the Chinese people who westerners feel are often victims of human rights abuses, corruption, uncaring government etc. That’s why so many Americans were so shocked when the Olympic protestors who were protesting about human rights in China got real push back from the citizenry of china who felt THEY were being attacked unfairly when we were protesting human rights! There were even some boycotts on European stores and companies who had locations in China because of this. And that cant all be due to the government propaganda machine. its human psychology to circle the wagons and defend the family even when the family is dysfunctional.

As for the gymnasts, of course they lied on purpose. Of course the coaches, Chinese Olympic Committee and some level of the Chinese government was directly in on it. Gold was absolutely a must. Anything else on your own home turf would have been considered an unacceptable failure and heads would have rolled if a bunch of 17 year olds had finished with a pack of silvers. The Chinese felt this was their most important shot at proving to the world (especially the west) that they could run an A-1 top notch state of the art world class series of games from top to bottom. And that meant dominating in the areas they were strongest in. And if it took falsifying a few birth certificates to get there then so be it.

Although frankly it seems ironic to me that we are in such an uproar about the fact that they were too young. How dare they have 14 year olds! That’s not fair! Seems to me that says something about your sport not about your athletes if prepubescent girls can always do better then adults or even “older” teens… Why has the sport evolved toward that exactly?

[truthiscool]

I AM SO SAD I DIDN'T GET TO SEE THE OLYMPICS !!!!!!!!!!!! But i heard that they were amazing.