Countdown Beijing : Red Star Athletes

Tennis Star Lindsay Davenport Unfazed by Pollution, Politics

Melinda Liu — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 19:39:59 GMT

Recently Jennifer Conrad talked with U.S. tennis star Lindsay Davenport on the eve of Team USA's departure for the Beijing Games. Her report:

Although some high-profile players—such as French player Amelie Mauresmo and American Andy Roddick—have said they'll sit out the Olympics to get ready for the U.S. Open, American tennis star Lindsay Davenport (currently ranked 23 by the WTA) says she wouldn't miss the Beijing Games.

"I love being a part of something much different than just tennis. I am part of Team U.S.A. and a representative of my country," says Davenport , who will be playing for the U.S. along with the Williams sisters and her doubles partner Liezel Huber.

"The Olympics have always been a big part of my family, and I'm honored to take part," she adds. Davenport won a gold medal in singles in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics; her father played on the 1968 U.S. volleyball team.

Davenport has played in Beijing twice before, and she expressed concerns about the Beijing air quality in other interviews.

But when I asked, she said that while the air is a concern for all athletes, she thinks the city is doing all it can to clean up the pollution.

As far as the pro-Tibet and human rights protests in the lead-up to the Olympics, Davenport would rather not go there: "I feel like I'm an athlete, and I'm there to play. The Olympics are about goodwill. If my country deems that we should send a team, then I'll be there."

Although troubles with her right knee caused Davenport to sit out June's East West Bank Classic in California , she says her knee is on the mend. And this year has been a comeback for the 32-year-old, who gave birth to her first son, Jagger, last June. Since returning to the game late last year, she has won several smaller tournaments and played at this year's Australian Open and Wimbledon .

"My time is much more limited now, but I enjoy playing tennis more," she says. "It's more fun, and I feel more down-to-earth."

To bounce back into playing shape after her son was born, she focused on staying healthy and eating well while she was pregnant. "I really thought it was the most important time of my life to be as healthy as I could. In the first few months after my son was born, exercise actually helped me to feel less tired and gave me an outlet to be with my thoughts."

After having her baby, Davenport wanted to look better too; she recently became a spokesperson for the wrinkle-filler Juvederm. "I saw some pictures of myself shortly after my son was born and didn't like what I saw—I thought I looked like I was in my mid to late 40s," she explains, adding that she thinks that playing tennis outdoors since she was a kid has taken a toll on her skin.

(Full disclosure: this interview was arranged by Juvederm on condition her use of products be mentioned; whatever else the Beijing Games turn out to be, the Olympics remain a major vehicle for corporate sponsors.)

"It does feel like women in our sport are way more scrutinized for our appearance than in other female sports. I don't know if this is because we wear short skirts or that we have been around so long."

Having her picture snapped with her son after she wins a big match has become a tradition for Davenport—and certainly she must hope for another photo op this August.

Red Star Zheng Jie: Grand Slam Surprise

Quindlen Krovatin — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 10:14:26 GMT

As promised in my last post, here's a profile of tennis player Zheng Jie, who stunned spectators at Wimbledon on July 1 when she became the first Chinese player ever to reach the semi-finals of a Grand Slam tournament:

Name: Zheng Jie (郑洁)
Age: 25 (dob: July 5, 1983)
Hometown: Chengdu, Sichuan Province
Olympic Medals Previously Won: None

Immediately after I wrote a Red Star entry about how Chinese athletes have been delivering disappointing performances in the last couple of months, Zheng Jie came out of nowhere and made me eat my words. Well, she didn't exactly come out of nowhere, but you'd be forgiven for thinking as much after reading this NYT article about the up-and-coming tennis pro.

In reality, Zheng first basked in Grand Slam glory when she and partner Yan Zi won the ladies' doubles competition at the Australian Open and then again at Wimbledon in 2006. Later that year she captured two gold medals at the Asian Games in Doha, Qatar in women's singles and doubles competition (read about other notable Chinese athletes who shone at the '06 Asian Games here and here). So the international tennis community was already aware of her considerable talents before she dazzled on Wimbledon's notoriously tricky grass courts.

But 2007 proved to be a difficult year for Zheng. She and partner Yan Zi failed to defend their doubles title at the Australian Open, succumbing to Taiwanese duo Yung Jan Chan and Chia Jung Chuang in the semi-finals. Then she suffered a debilitating ankle injury at the French Open that eventually required surgery and forced Zheng to withdraw from all other events for the rest of the year. Her international ranking suffered accordingly, dropping to 163 by the end of 2007. Several strong showings in the early months of 2008 allowed her to climb back to 133 in the world, but she still needed to petition Wimbledon officials for a wild card berth in June.

Perhaps it was her underdog status that allowed Zheng to surprise competitors at Wimbledon and breeze through the early rounds, defeating Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova in the first and Great Britain's Elena Baltacha in the second. But no one could have predicted the epic ass-whooping she handed first seed and World No.1 Ana Ivanović in the third round, winning 6-1 6-4 (in fact, she'd previously faced and almost defeated Ivanović in 2006 at a WTA event in Montreal). Next, number 15 seed Ágnes Szávay of Hungary fell in the fourth, and finally number 18 seed Nicole Vaidisova of the Czech Republic went down under Zheng's racket in the quarterfinals.

Though she eventually lost to Serena Williams, her on-court accomplishments were certainly inspiring, and expect tennis to experience a significant boost in popularity on the Mainland as a result. It is interesting to note (and indicative of China's emphasis on the group over the individual) that Zheng's coach (and husband) Zhang Yu, himself a famous Chinese tennis player, tempered any praise of her performance in the singles competition with sharp criticism of her poor play in doubles competition, where Zheng and Yan Zi lost to Ekaterina Makarova of Russia and Selima Sfar of Tunisia in the third round.

Regardless, be sure to keep an eye on Zheng as she vies for gold in both singles and doubles competition at the Olympics in August. In the meantime, the athlete-turned-humanitarian plans to spend the next few weeks helping build houses for the victims of the magnitude-7.9 earthquake that struck the area south of her birthplace in Sichuan on May 12. She's already donated all of her prize money from the French Open and Wimbledon to relief efforts and says that the dead and displaced will serve as an inspiration to her in future competitions.

Red Star Athletes: China Trembles

Quindlen Krovatin — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 16:38:10 GMT

Although the Chinese excel in certain sports, many of the Middle Kingdom’s best athletes are notorious choke artists who disappoint almost as often as they impress. Maybe their inconsistency has something to do with China’s system of athletic development.

Whatever the case, conventional wisdom held that in ’08 a hometown crowd would drive Chinese athletes to overcome their performance anxiety and shine as brightly as the five stars on the country’s national flag. Yet some of China’s most high-profile athletes have delivered underwhelming performances in the last couple of months, revealing cracks in the country’s veneer of invincibility that could prove portentous in August.

The first ill omen came when Guo Jinging stumbled during the women’s 3m springboard preliminary at the FINA Diving World Series in Nanjing on May 30 and failed to advance to the finals. Unsubstantiated pregnancy rumors may have contributed to her subpar performance. Or maybe an explanation can be found at the bottom of a baijiu bottle. I have it on good authority that Guo drank too much, then threw up at a party in mid-May.

In fact, China’s entire diving team has been looking less than stellar as of late. During the sixth leg of this year's FINA Diving Grand Prix, which concluded on June 9 and took place in Rostock, Germany, China won only five out of eight gold medals. Such is China’s diving dominance that anything less than a sweep is considered disappointing.

That was the third time in less than two months that China failed to capture diving titles it once won effortlessly. During the fourth leg in Montreal in May, China failed to walk away with gold in both the men's 10m synchronized platform and the women's 10m platform. A week before Montreal’s frustrating finals, at a World Series in Mexico, China lost three events - the men's 3m springboard, men's 10m synchronized platform and women's 10m platform. The losses by top pair Lin Yue and Huo Liang in the men's 10m synchronized platform at Mexico and then again at Montreal were especially surprising since they hadn’t lost since 2006.

All of which led team manager Zhou Jihong to declare early last month, "I do not think we have an absolute advantage over our opponents anymore." Granted, critics have cast aspersions on the team’s preparedness in the past only to see China reign supreme at the Olympics. But it’s not just China’s divers who are having trouble delivering the goods with less than six weeks remaining before the opening ceremonies kick off on August 8. Another athlete who has seen his unquestioned advantage in a particular event evaporate is hurdler Liu Xiang.

First Liu withdrew from the Reebok Grand Prix on May 31, citing a tight hamstring. Then he was disqualified from the Prefontaine Classic Grand Prix on June 8 when he false started. And then Cuban hurdler Dayron Robles ran a faultless race to clock 12.87 at the IAAF Grand Prix meeting in Ostrava, Czech Republic, shaving one-hundredth of a second off of the previous record set by Liu in July, 2006.

Robles has since been gracious in his praise of Liu, insisting that he believes “at least five guys can win in Beijing, but Liu is the favorite. He is the guy to beat.” Regardless, Chinese sport czars must be understandably concerned that their golden boy could walk away with silver and lose face (horror of horrors) as well as first place.

And any hope that a new generation of Chinese athletes will rise to the top at the Beijing Games seems to be fading fast. Cui Dalin, Deputy Minister of Sport, previously admitted that the country's ambitious Project 119 had failed to yield the bumper crop of young talent that the Chinese government had hoped to cultivate in anticipation of hosting the big O.

If the Chinese soccer team is any indication, there won’t be many surprise upsets for China in August. The national team will not be going to the World Cup in 2010 after finishing last in their group on June 14 with a loss to Iraq. Competing in a relatively easy group – China vied with Iraq, Qatar, and Australia (the only acknowledged powerhouse among the four) for a place on the South African pitch – China failed to win a single game.

The team has only ever qualified for the World Cup once, in 2002, but was quickly eliminated in the first round without scoring a single goal. While soccer is hugely popular in China (I remember crowds of people gathering to watch the World Cup finals in 2006 on TVs that their neighbors had set up outside on the sidewalks at absurd hours of the night because of the time difference), yet the national team remains decidedly unimpressive.

Regardless of whether these recent failings can be attributed to the curse of 2008, Machiavellian machinations meant to lull foreign competitors into a false sense of security, or simply nerves, only time will tell. The only sure thing these days seems to be a sense of uncertainty.

"A Normal Life": U.S. gymnast Shawn Johnson

Karen Springen — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 10:04:19 GMT

During the Olympics media summit in Chicago in mid-April, Newsweek's Karen
Springen talked with U.S. gymnast Shawn Johnson, 16, about her Olympics
aspirations and her emphasis on having "a normal life" -- including going to the prom.
Excerpts:

Shawn Johnson suggested she was an accidental Olympian. "I never
started gymnastics thinking I wanted to be an Olympian," she says.
"It was just always something I enjoyed."

At age 3, she started tumbling. "My parents put me in gymnastics
because I had way too much energy around the house." She declines to
talk about competitors in Beijing. "I never really try to focus on
anyone else," she says. "I was always just trying to beat myself."

She likes living 15 minutes from her gym, and living in Iowa, which she
calls "the best place ever." Her mom and dad are "the most normal
parents there are," she says. "They never pushed me. They just wanted
me to follow my heart." Because of them, she says, "I've stayed pretty
normal." She attends public school from 8 to noon. She works out from
2:30 to 6:30 p.m. during the week and from noon until 6 p.m. on
Saturdays. Sunday is her day off.

Her role model: Mary Lou Retton. "Mary Lou Retton has always inspired
me," she says. "She's the nicest lady I've ever met." But she doesn't
want to be just like her. "I'm in the sport to become the next Shawn
Johnson," she says. "I want to be a person that little girls and athletes
can look up to and admire."

She says she doesn't suffer from injuries (though she later says, "you
learn every ache and pain possible-it's the most physically demanding
sport there is"). When she's not at the gym, she goes to school
football games. Last summer she was a ball girl for the football team.
"My parents think it's mandatory I have a normal life," she says. So
does her coach, who she's been with since she was 6. "He's completely
understanding I need a normal life," she says.

In fact, the number of hours she spends in the gym is on the "low end"
to "avoid burnout," she says, "[But] there is definitely a lot of demand for my
time." She is considering a career in the "medical field
because gymnastics teaches you so much about your body," she says.
"I'm going to be in gymnastics for life."

After the VISA national championships last year, a little girl on the
street said she wanted to be like her. "It was such an honor," Johnson says.
"It was the greatest, rewarding feeling to have." She is excited for her Chinese
coach, who hasn't been back to his country in 13 years. She is happy
with the new gymnastics code, though she knows some people have
criticized the loss of some of the artistic side of the sport. "I
think the new code is great," she says. "I am a powerful athlete."

Red Star Athletes: How China Churns Out Champions

Quindlen Krovatin — Mon, 26 May 2008 07:18:19 GMT

In response to the requests of curious readers, I’ve put together an entry further illuminating the Chinese system of athletic development. Much like the Chinese system of governance, it was first fashioned after the Soviet model before rapid modernization lead to certain deviations.

The system has proved remarkably successful in recent years. At Athens in ’04, China won 32 gold medals, only three fewer than the Americans. Immediately after Athens, the government instituted an ambitious national athletic initiative called Project 119. Choosing 119 medals in sports in which the Chinese Olympic Team traditionally makes a poor showing or does not compete at all (such as boxing, canoeing, archery, etc.), the government aggressively trained new athletes to capture these medals at the Beijing Games in August.

The Chinese system of athletic development begins on the provincial level. Children are selected when they are still very young (usually between the ages of six and nine) to join teams funded by provincial governments. There are 34 province-level administrative units in China. Some provinces excel in certain sports (Liaoning province in China’s northeast, for instance, is known for producing outstanding ping-pong players).

Obviously, selection criteria differ from sport to sport, but promising athletes are often distinguished by physical attributes such as above-average height or flexibility. For example, when searching for gifted boxers, the Chinese government first looks for children whose wingspan exceeds their height.

Provincial governments nurture the young athletes, closely monitoring their progress and subjecting them to rigorous training regimens. The provincial athletic organizations then compete against one another in tournaments that determine who will be chosen for the national team.

The entire system rewards success no matter what the cost. As such, Chinese athletes are sometimes characterized as passionless automatons driven only by the desire to win. Other countries routinely accuse China of advocating systematized steroid abuse to achieve success, and in the mid-to-late 90s a series of doping scandals rocked the national women’s swimming team (remember the enormous latissimi dorsi on those girls?). Lasting repercussions remain.

Despite the importance of provincial governments in the development process, talented athletes can still join the national team even if they haven’t been cultivated by a state-sponsored athletic organization. An example is Liu Xiang, who was discovered by the national team when he was already 15. Once an athlete joins the national team, his life becomes even more structured and exhausting. Athletes often practice 7 days a week for hours on end.

During the entire process, an athlete’s life is never entirely his or her own. Because the Chinese government pays for their food, shelter, and training, athletes are considered property of the state. An athlete can neither fire his state-assigned coach nor marry without his coach’s permission (in fact, weightlifter Zhang Guozheng is the only married member of the Chinese national team). An athlete cannot endorse a product without the central government’s permission, and athletes are discouraged from signing too many endorsement deals because the government doesn't want champions of a (purportedly) socialist state to appear preoccupied with making money instead of winning medals.

When an athlete does endorse a product, he or she can only keep half the earnings. The other half is divided up among the key components of the Chinese system of athletic development: 20% of the earnings goes to the coach, 10% goes to the team (for example, Guo Jingjing gives 10% of her earnings to the national diving team), 10% goes to a state athletic fund, and 10% goes to the home province. Because each province takes a cut of the earnings of its stable of athletes, disputes sometimes arise over which provinces "owns" certain athletes. An athlete can conceivably retire at any time, but upon retiring he or she loses all support from the government. It’s hard not to pity people with so little free will.

Red Star Zhang Guozheng: Pumping Iron, Winning Gold

Quindlen Krovatin — Wed, 14 May 2008 08:05:47 GMT

Though the grievous repercussions of the Sichuan earthquake have toned down the grandiose scale of the Olympic torch relay, preparations for the Games are still going full steam ahead. Quindlen Krovatin continues his "Red Star" series profiling notable Chinese athletes who'll go for gold in August:

Name: Zhang Guozheng (张国政)

Age: 33 (dob: September 14, 1974)

Hometown: Xianyou, Fujian Province

Previous Olympic Medals: Gold in Mens Weightlifting at Athens ‘04

Sometimes incredible strength comes in surprisingly small packages. Just look at Zhang Guozheng. The seasoned weightlifter stands a mere 5 feet 4 inches tall and barely weighs 160 pounds after a big meal. But there’s nothing minuscule about his musculature. Zhang can clean and jerk three times his bodyweight and squat almost 500 pounds. See for yourself:

In the wide world of international weightlifting he's like David and Goliath rolled into one.

The Olympic gold medalist is best remembered for his impressive victory at Athens in 2004 when he came back after years of disappointing performances to seize gold and demonstrate he still has what it takes to beat the best. Then he did it again at the 2006 Asian Games in Qatar (to read about another Asian Games all-star click here). Granted, much like China’s preeminent boxer, Zou Shiming (who, funnily enough, weighs a third less than Zhang even though he's two inches taller), Zhang competes in a comparatively light weight class, 69kg, which means he doesn’t have to contend with as many hulking competitors as can be found in, say, the 105kg weight class. Which is not to impune the color of Zhang’s medal or the quality of his mettle.

What may tarnish both, however, are whispered rumors of doping. Although Zhang has never tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs, his return to the top of the sport after nearly a decade of languishing on it’s bottom rung has certainly raised eyebrows, especially when he’s lifting more than he ever has in his entire life at the not-so-tender age of 33. Granted, the sport is rife with the abuse of steroids and human growth hormone, and weightlifters face some of the most stringent testing at the Olympics, so the fact that Wang has never tested positive should help to quell such slander.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time Zhang has found himself a victim of his own success. When he first joined the Chinese national team, Zhang was affiliated with southwestern Yunnan Province. In China, certain provinces excel in specific sports. For example, Liaoning province in China’s chilly northeast produces many of the country’s best table tennis players (as previously noted). So the family of a gifted table tennis player will often move to Liaoning so that they can take advantage of the province’s superior facilities and coaches. Similarly, Yunnan, known for its natural splendor and ethnic diversity, is popular with China's weightlifters.

However, after a series of poor performances in the early ‘00s when Zhang failed to place in several high-profile competitions, Yunnan dropped Zhang, and he changed his affiliation to Shanxi province. It was only after he won gold at Athens that Yunnan came back demanding their cut of Zhang’s earnings and endorsement deals. An ugly tug-of war ensued. Ultimately, Zhang returned to Yunnan after provincial sports officials agreed to pay him $180,000 for being the first athlete from the province to capture Olympic gold. This experience helps illuminate the complex system of athletic development in China, which I’ll address in a later blog post.

Red Star Guo Yue: Ping-Pong's Teen Queen Supreme

Quindlen Krovatin — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 06:47:13 GMT

Name: Guo Yue (郭跃, no relation to the Ms. Guo I previously profiled)

Age: 19 (dob: July 17, 1988)

Hometown: Anshan, Liaoning Province

Previous Olympic Medals Won: Bronze in Women’s Table Tennis Doubles at Athens ‘04

It must kinda suck to be a female table tennis star in China. Filling the shoes of legends like four-time Olympic gold-medalist Deng Yaping requires exceptional skill and unwavering dedication.

But to be a female table tennis star from China’s northeastern Liaoning province, home to such puissant ping-pong prodigies as Wang Nan, Chang Chenchen, and Li Jia, an athlete must work tirelessly to distinguish herself. Somehow Guo Yue has accomplished the seemingly impossible, winning international titles and popular acclaim in a country lousy with the world’s most talented table tennis players.

Maybe her easy smile beguiles fans. Or maybe there’s something about how deferential she is, often praising opponents after defeating them and attributing her victories to good fortune and hard work, that appeals to painfully modest citizens of the Middle Kingdom. Certainly, Guo would never dream of comparing herself to her illustrious predecessors.

She’s content to let her paddle do the talking instead. In 2003, Guo became the youngest finalist in the International Table Tennis Federation ProTour’s history, eventually losing to fellow countrywoman Zhang Yining, who went on to win two gold medals in the ‘04 Olympics. At Athens Guo herself demonstrated impressive poise for someone so young (she was only 16 at the time, although by then she’d been playing ping-pong for more than a decade), walking away with a bronze in doubles competition.

Despite a series of disheartening losses that led her to take almost six months off from competition in 2005, she has since returned to the sport looking better than ever. On May 26, 2007 she won the world championship by beating compatriot Li Xiaoxia. (As I previously pointed out in my profile of Wang Liqin – who, incidentally, won the World Table Tennis Mixed Doubles Championship with Guo in 2007 – Chinese table tennis players are so overwhelmingly dominant that they often wind up competing against one another in the finals of otherwise international events). Now if only she can replicate her recent success in August.

Red Star Yang Wei: Back on Top?

Quindlen Krovatin — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 23:28:24 GMT

Name: Yang Wei (杨威)
Age: 27 (dob: Feb. 8, 1980)
Hometown: Xiantao, Hubei Province
Previous Olympic Medals Won: Gold in Men’s Gymnastics Team Competition and Silver in Men’s Individual All-Around Competition at Sydney ‘00

As a member of the inimitable Chinese Men’s Gymnastics Team at Sydney in 2000, Yang Wei medaled twice and demonstrated why the Middle Kingdom remains renowned for producing some of the best tumblers in the world. His agility was the subject of universal admiration, and what the then 20-year-old Yang lacked in grace and refinement he made up for with power and enthusiasm. But just when the international gymnastics community thought he would come into his own and seize individual all-around gold at Athens, Yang had a meltdown on the mats.

Losing control on the high bar, Yang dangled from one hand for several seconds and scored an abysmal 8.987. Had Yang successfully completed his routine without losing control, he would have almost assuredly taken the gold since rival Paul Hamm had fallen earlier on vault. By failing to complete his routine, Yang set into motion the Paul Hamm/Yang Tae Young gold medal controversy that divided men’s gymnastics for months after the Games. When interviewed by an AP reporter after the event, Yang, who ended up in seventh place, could only shake his head in disbelief and say, “What a pity. I really didn't think I would make a mistake on that event.''

But now Yang is back, and he’s determined to fulfill the promise he once showed. In 2006 he won gold with his team and in the individual all-around competition at the 15th Asian Games held in Doha, Qatar. In so doing, the 26-year-old, who made his Asian Games debut in the 1998 Bangkok Games, tied fellow countryman Li Ning as the most prolific male gymnast in the Asiad’s history with eight golds. Then he did it again at the 2006 World Championships, leaving with golds in the team and individual all-around competitions. Now Yang is poised to ascend to the rarefied air of first place in 2008 and sees only one obstacle in his path to the podium: “Japan is our target to beat in the 2008 Olympics,” Wang told a reporter from China’s official Xinhua News Agency in 2006.

Since then, he's avoided making similarly inflammatory statements -- but his magnanimity has its limits. When asked by a reporter earlier this year about his opinion of archrival Tomita Hiroyuki of Japan, Yang said it's still too early to talk about the fight for the individual all-round gold between Hiroyuki and him. “Although I defeated Tomita Hiroyuki at this year's world championships, the world championships are not the Olympic Games, after all.” No doubt he hopes the results will be the same.

Leninist, Capitalist: Olympic diving programs

Manuela Zoninsein — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 18:33:51 GMT

Karl Marx and Adam Smith would have cheered avidly at the Diving World Cup two weeks ago in Beijing. Trailing China—which swept gold medals in seven of eight categories—were Russia, Canada, Great Britain, Ukraine and USA. In other words, the top six teams in the Men’s 3 Meter Synchronized event were evenly split between historically Communist and Free Market traditions.

How do the diving styles vary between these two systems? And how do they evoke the different training programs that got their divers to the Water Cube? I decided to take a closer look at the national training programs behind each set of divers.

Wang Feng and Qin Kai, the Chinese representatives, performed their dives with absolute precision: bodies angled like a geometric compass, legs glued together, feet pointed after years of ballet training. Their movements were synchronized from the moment they began to ascend the three-meter-high boards—which was even before the judges eyed them. Leon Taylor, of the Great Britain team, described the Chinese divers “as robots.” He wasn't the only one to find, as he put it, “something vaguely dehumanizing about their perfect symmetry. You’d think they were identical twins.”

Despite China’s achievements on that day, Zhou Jihong, director of the Chinese national diving team, afterwards told the official Xinhua News Agency that the World Cup was "just a training session.” Xinhua said that "Zhou makes it clear to China’s divers that their gold status is a temporary position." No surprise that Wang wasted no time basking in the limelight; he said he was already preparing to "get focused on [our] small errors and try to get rid of them.”

China’s Olympic athletes are learning to live with the dual demands of both a regimented Soviet-styled system and the celebrity world of corporate endorsements, as described in an earlier post by Jonathan Ansfield.

The Russian program, on the other hand, openly favors the “carrot”, and not the “stick,” approach these days. Moscow’s Olympic team members receive $500 worth of monthly allowances, described as“a good incentive to work hard” by Leonid Tyagachev, chairman of the Russian Olympic Committee, just prior to the Athens Games. At that point, the government had also promised tax-free bonuses—up to $50,000 for gold medalists.

This doesn’t mean Russian athletes are living off the fat of the land. The controlled, rigid take-offs and flips of Yuriy Kunakov and renowned careerist Dmitry Sautin evoked their severe, at times bare-bones, training approach.

In contrast, Canadians Arturo Miranda and Alexandre Despatie (a medaled soloist in his own right) are the product of a program which seems designed to keep the diver—no matter the level of skill—self-fulfilled and in pursuit of personal excellence. Divers training under this model come to the program of their own volition, and ideally decide to stay without governmental pressure or financial need (though commercial money no doubt helps). The Canadians performed the most graceful, carefree and lithe dives I’d seen that day.

After receiving their bronze medal, the duo seemed neither excited nor deflated. Miranda explained, “I am happy overall with our performance. We will do better next time." Despatie admitted that “we didn’t have the impression we dove so badly” even though they were in last place after the first two dives. Quite the lighthearted response from a team that just placed third globally after years of training.

Whereas China culls its 1.3 billion-strong population for ripe young talent to train throughout their youth, Great Britons Benjamin Swain and Nicholas Robinson-Baker began training together barely a year before ascending to their fourth place finish at the World Cup. Then again, the noticeably mature presence of the British duo made me feel that these were real people, with real pressures, sitting on their shoulders. The dives were a learned, cerebral precision. According to Swain, the pair’s relaxed, almost debonair, approach made all the difference. “We loved every minute of it, felt relaxed throughout and couldn’t wait for our next round of dives.”

Enjoyment seems an incentive for the U.S. team, as well. The home-page of the Indiana Diving program, where the States are now training their divers, opens with a letter to parents and divers declaring: “Let’s learn, train and most importantly have some fun!” It’s a contract between the program and the athlete, with the former telling the latter, “we appreciate your confidence in us.”

Unfortunately, the U.S. program has struggled recently: the American divers didn’t place in Athens, and in Beijing, Jevon Tarantino and Christopher Colwill yo-yo’d erratically in the clarity and coordination of their dives that day.

In fact, U.S. officials have considered shifting their strategy by taking a page or two from the Chinese approach. Increasingly, they've centralized their training in Indiana, where many hopefuls move to train full-time. And they’re starting to seek out promising girls and boys at a younger age.

As for the Ukrainian training program, there was no mention of their strategy. Their divers, Dmytrio Lysenko and Anton Zakharov, weren't interviewed in any news media I ran across. All I remember during their dives was being disturbed by spectators getting up to buy ice cream and pop corn before the Chinese took their turn on the boards again.

Yao Ming Breaks His Foot--and Chinese Hearts

Quindlen Krovatin — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 02:38:38 GMT

When six-time NBA all-star Yao Ming revealed on Tuesday that he’d sustained a season-ending stress fracture below the small toe of his left foot, Houston Rockets fans weren’t alone in their anguish.

A nation of one billion-plus wept with them.

Yao is arguably China’s most visible Olympic athlete, and although the national team boasts other NBA-caliber players, the country’s hopes for its first medal in basketball rested squarely on the Shanghai giant’s impossibly broad shoulders. Until now.

At Tuesday’s press conference, the Rockets announced that Yao would be sidelined for three to four months before beginning full rehabilitation training. That leaves the 27-year-old with only a month or two to regain his competitive edge before the Olympic Games begin August 8 in Beijing.

Looking dejected, his voice deeper than usual as if hoarse from crying, Yao said, "If I cannot play in the Olympics for my country, it would be the biggest loss of my career." Afterwards, Houston reporters were quick to criticize Yao’s comments, accusing the 7-foot-6 center of putting his country before his employer.

Granted, Rockets fans are understandably disappointed. Houston has strung together a 13-game winning streak in the last month and was largely perceived as back in playoff contention in the highly competitive Western Conference prior to Yao’s announcement.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time injuries have forced Yao to ride the pine. In his previous two seasons he’s missed 59 games due to an assortment of injuries, compared to the one game he missed during his first three seasons in the NBA. And he broke the same foot once before in 2006.

Chinese orthopedic experts remain optimistic that Yao will be ready in time for the Olympics. Qiao Wei, medical education director of Beijing University of Physical Education, told a People’s Daily reporter on Thursday that he thinks, “there is enough time for Yao to be ready in August. He will spend three months in bed and one month for basic rehabilitation, then he can play on the court.”

However, Qiao echoed the complaints of Chinese medical experts that the fracture was a direct result of the Rockets’ failure to find an adequate substitute for Yao, which required him to play for more time than is healthy for a man of his size: "Yao could not have avoided the injury given his size and a 38-minute average playing time per game. It is not because of a hit or a stretch during the game, it is a long-time thing. I think it is a reflection of his hectic season."

Yao and the Rockets still haven’t decided whether to put his foot in a cast or under a surgeon’s knife. Now all Chinese fans can do is hold their collective breath and pray that Yao can stage a comeback of messianic proportions. His size 22 shoes are just too big for anyone else to fill.

Red Star Wang Liqin: Playing Mind Games

Quindlen Krovatin — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 00:05:18 GMT

Name: Wang Liqin (王励勤)
Age: 29 (dob: June 18, 1978)
Hometown: Shanghai
Previous Olympic Medals Won: Gold in Men's Table Tennis Doubles at Sydney 2000, Bronze in Men's Table Tennis Singles at Athens 2004

It’s no secret that China is home to outstanding table tennis players, and Wang Liqin is no exception. The Olympic gold medalist has twice won the world championship, first in 2003 and then again in 2005, aided by his impeccable shakehand (as opposed to penhold) technique and imposing size. At just over 6ft tall, with exceptionally long arms, Wang is appreciably larger than his competitors in a sport otherwise dominated by the diminutive.

He’s had a paddle in his hand since he was six, and the Chinese national team snapped him up at the tender age of 15. Which means Wang has more than a decade’s worth of experience playing in the most competitive table tennis environment in the world. Which means he’s no joke. Early in his career, Wang was touted as a new kind of table tennis player by coaches and fans. His superior size and powerful strokes seemed to be the qualities of a player who could change ping-pong in the same way Tiger Woods has changed golf.

Yet individual success at the Olympics has eluded Wang. Sure, he shone at Sydney when competing alongside his teammate, Yan Sen, in the Men’s Doubles finals (against two of his other teammates, Kong Linghui and Liu Guoliang; just to give you some idea of how hardcore the Chinese table tennis team is).

But his bronze at Athens in singles competition was considered a disappointment in light of his enviable talent and wealth of experience. Fans worry that he lacks the necessary mental stamina to compete on the international stage. When asked after Athens by a reporter from China’s official Xinhua News Agency what he needed the most to win, Wang immediately replied, “Ferocity. At critical points, I lack ferocity.” Can a hometown crowd drive Wang to be more aggressive and ascend to what many consider his rightful place in China’s pantheon of ping-pong stars?

Red Star Yi Jianlian: Long Shot?

Quindlen Krovatin — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 23:20:18 GMT

Here's the latest in a series of Chinese athletes' profiles:

Name: Yi Jianlian (易建联)
Age: 20 (dob: Oct. 20, 1987)
Hometown: Heshan, Guangdong Province
Previous Olympic Medals Won: None

Little is known about how Yi Jianlian will perform in the ’08 Olympics, his first on the Chinese Olympic Basketball Team. Surely mainland fans hope he’ll fare better than he has during his rookie season with the Milwaukee Bucks. Wisconsin fans have been understandably disappointed by the 7ft power forward who was once compared to German sharpshooter Dirk Nowitzki.

Although Yi won a spot as a starter with the Bucks, he’s posted an anemic 9.8 points and 5.8 rebounds per game, small potatoes compared to the 24.9 points and 11.5 rebounds he averaged during his final season with the Guangdong Tigers. A sense of disappointment may be mutual. When he was first drafted, Yi complained that a Chinese star with his talent ought to play somewhere with a larger market and a larger Chinese population -- like New York City. Critics have since painted his poor performance as a silent protest.

On January 30, David Thorpe, who writes a column for espn.com called Rookie Watch, dropped Yi to number 10 on his list of the top 10 rookies in the NBA (Yi was once as high as number 2) because he’s, “still slipping, especially inside as a rebounder. We'd like to see him engaged in battle a lot more. So far, January is proving to be Yi's worst month in the NBA, in terms of raw production.”

Perhaps playing in front of his fellow Chinese citizens will drive Yi to excel. He showed signs of life, scoring 19 points and grabbing 9 boards, when more than 100 million Chinese viewers watched his Bucks take on Yao Ming and the Houston Rockets in Houston on November 9, 2007.

It is interesting to note that for several years Yi has been at the center of a growing controversy regarding his age. Investigative reporters have accused the Guangdong provincial government of conspiring with Yi to falsify his date of birth so he could play in junior competitions. Although his residency permit and passport say that he was born in 1987, other sources indicate that he may have been born in 1984. In 2004, he was listed as being born in 1984 in China's Four Nation Tournament, although authorities later claimed it was only a typo.

Perhaps the most damning evidence is that the Chinese government is usually unwilling to give official permission to a player to enter the NBA draft unless he is more than 21 years of age -- which is why Yao Ming (dob: September 12, 1980) had to wait until 2002 to declare his eligibility. If Yi really was born in 1987 it would mean he was only 20 when he entered the draft in 2007. Regardless, these questions probably wouldn’t matter as much if Yi could silence his critics with an Olympic-caliber performance on the court.

Red Star Guo Jingjing: How to Make a Splash

Quindlen Krovatin — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 09:00:00 GMT

The latest in a series of blog entries introducing top Chinese athletes:

Name: Guo Jingjing (郭晶晶)
Age: 26 (dob: Oct. 15, 1981)
Hometown: Baoding, Hebei Province
Previous Olympic Medals: Silver in Women’s Synchronized 3m Springboard and Silver in Women’s 3m Springboard at Sydney ’00, Gold in Women’s Synchronized 3m Springboard and Gold in Women’s 3m Springboard at Athens ’04

It seemed strange when Guo Jingjing announced on November 23, 2006 that she intended to retire after the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. After all, the Baoding-born diver is one of China’s most dominant athletes, having brought home two silver medals from the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and then two golds from Athens in ’04. And most divers remain formidable competitors well into their thirties.

Perhaps Guo wants to retire while she’s still at the top of her game. Or maybe she’s just tired of the Chinese tabloids prying into her private life. The gorgeous Guo admittedly fuels speculation by choosing high-profile partners for her rumored romances. After Athens, she was purportedly involved with fellow Chinese diver and gold medalist Tian Liang. The two even co-starred in a commercial for a Chinese energy drink, during which they reenacted the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet.

But in early 2005, sport czars castigated the pair for “overly indulging in unsanctioned commercial activities.” Guo apologized and remains a top contender in 2008. Tian was not so lucky; both Guo and the national diving team dumped him. Since then, glossy magazines have linked Guo with Kenneth Fok Kai-kong, the playboy grandson of Hong Kong business tycoon Henry Fok.

Now mainland fans worry that Guo has become overly concerned with product endorsements and self-promotion to the detriment of her diving skills (her celebrity blog only exacerbates the backlash). “I think Guo feels pressure to prove to Chinese fans that she’s more than just a pretty face,” speculates China Daily sports reporter Si Tingting. “She wanted to retire after Athens, but when Beijing won its bid to host the Olympics, she couldn’t pass up the opportunity to compete in front of a hometown crowd.” What better way to end such an illustrious career than to win once more and escape public scrutiny by bowing out a champion?

Red Star: Introducing Liu Xiang

Quindlen Krovatin — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 09:26:23 GMT

Of all the Olympic "jock stars" who'll be competing in the Summer Games, Liu Xiang is considered China's hottest. Here's a brief profile of Liu, the first in a series:

Name: Liu Xiang (刘翔)
Age: 24 (dob: Jul. 13, 1983)
Hometown: Shanghai
Previous Olympic Medals: Gold in Men’s 110m Hurdles at Athens ‘04

It would have been easy to dismiss Liu Xiang as a flash in the pan after he came out of nowhere and clocked a world record-tying time of 12.91 seconds in the men’s 110m hurdles at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. But then he broke the world record with a time of 12.88 seconds at the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Super Grand Prix in 2006. And then he won the World Championship on August 31, 2007 in Osaka, Japan.

Now Nike Brand President Charlie Denson is comparing Liu to Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, and LeBron James. And it’s not just because he’s athletically gifted. The 24-year-old phenom from Shanghai is arguably the most popular man in China. His face is ubiquitous, plastered on billboards, broadcast during commercial breaks, printed on magazine covers and the sides of milk cartons. The ladies, in particular, love Liu because of his sweet smile and the well-spread rumor that he embodies the traditional Chinese stereotype of a “Shanghai Man” -- docile and conciliatory towards women.

But look out ladies: the first Chinese man ever to win an Olympic gold medal in track and field doesn't have time for dating -- at least not if you ask his coach, who's obviously hoping Liu will best his world record and once again bring home the gold. "I feel Liu Xiang still has untapped potential, so our task is to bring that potential out at the Olympics. Because he's already taken on so many things, if he were to date as well, he definitely would not have enough time [to realize his potential]," says coach Sun Haipeng, who first convinced Liu, then 15, to try hurdling instead of competing in the high jump. It remains to be seen whether all work and no play will make Liu a dull boy -- or burnish the hurdler until he shines like gold.

Gold Rush: China's Olympic strategy and "Project 119"

Melinda Liu — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 04:09:59 GMT

Games preparations are heating up so much that interviews are taking longer and longer to arrange. Like, four months is still not enough advance notice for an interview with an Olympic athlete? Cui Dalin, Deputy Director of the General Administration of Sport (GASC) apologized for being unable to fit a one-on-one interview into his schedule. Instead he provided written answers to questions submitted by Newsweek. The GASC oversees China’s Olympic athletes and its strategy for winning gold medals. Cui didn't answer all the questions submitted -- check out his response to questions about "Project 119" -- but at least he didn't evade our request completely. Excerpts :

Newsweek: Does China expect to win more gold medals than any other country at the Beijing Summer Games? What are the Chinese team’s hopes and aspirations?

Cui Dalin: We expect Chinese athletes to do well both in spiritual civilization and in gold medals at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. We hope they’ll show the audience not only their good sports technique, but especially their progress in weak areas. We hope the Chinese team will try its best to win gold medals...[But] of course our assessment of the Chinese team at the Beijing Olympic Games will not be limited to the number of gold medals they win. They have a comprehensive target including the following four aspects:

1) Carrying forth the Olympic spirit and the Chinese sports spirit; trying their best in competition; not being arrogant when they win and not losing their heart when they are defeated; showing their best spirit and sports morality to the world; 2) Trying their best to win sport achievements; 3) Strengthening friendly exchanges with other countries and regions in the world; 4) By hosting the Olympic Games, we’ll promote and provide good models for healthy activities among the people, and promote the development of mass sports in China. China has never identified being number one in gold medals as its goal. In many sports, China is still behind compared to world levels, and in general is not as strong as some countries that are world “sports powers”. We encourage our athletes to achieve their best sports results, demonstrate their good sporting spirit, and try their best to be among the top medal winners. But as for how many gold medals they may or will win…we’ll know only after the Games.

Newsweek: Please explain the so-called “Project 119” which is related to China’s strategy for winning gold medals? When did it start? Will it continue after 2008? Do you feel it’s been a success or a failure, and how will it influence the Chinese Olympic Team’s performance in 2008?

Cui: Swimming, track and field, and water events such as canoe and sailboat are basic events [that represented] 119 gold medals in past Olympic Games. Now, the number of gold medals for the same events has been increased to 122; among them 34 gold medals for swimming, 47 for track and field and 41 for water events.

During the Olympics in Sydney, the Chinese team won only one gold in the about-mentioned events. After that, the State General Sports Bureau put forward “Project 199” with the aim of making big breakthroughs in those events. In the 2004 Athens Olympics, the Chinese team won four gold medals on the “Project 119” list, including Liu Xiang in the track and field men’s 100-meter hurdles; Xing Huina in the women’s10,000-meter race in track and field; Luo Xuejuan in the women’s 100-meter breast stroke; and Meng Guanliang and Yang Wenjun in the men’s C-2 500-meter canoe.

Newsweek: Chinese athletes will be competing on their home turf this summer. Do you think some will perform even better than they would otherwise because they want to impress their fellow citizens?

Cui : Chinese athletes won’t have the time differences [and jet lag that visiting athletes might have] and are more used to China’s weather and the environment. There will be more Chinese in the audience watching the games and cheering for the athletes. But at the same time, Chinese athletes will have more psychological pressure and more distractions. People in China will pin high hopes on them, making it more possible for them to feel the strain or experience other sudden phenomena that could lead to abnormal performances in the Games.

Newsweek: Can you explain how athletes are chosen for the Olympic team, and give examples of how some well-known athletes were chosen?

Cui: The athletes at present have been actively training and taking part in all kinds of qualifying competitions, both domestically and internationally. We can’t yet confirm who will represent China in the 2008 Olympic Games. We will let you as soon as we have the name list.

Newsweek: There have been rumors that China held back some talented athletes from other competitions so that the Olympic team’s performances in 2008 will be particularly impressive – is this true?

Cui: Athletes grow up and become competent by taking part in competitions. That’s how they gain experience. Therefore we’ll not hold back talented athletes. Instead we provide more opportunities for them to compete and to help young athletes mature quickly. Besides, there many events that require the athletes themselves to qualify in order to take part in the Games. It’s impossible for us to hold them back.