Wang Meng celebrating another victory on the short track

At the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada, short track speed skater Wang Meng became the talk of the sports world after claiming her third gold medal in the women’s 1,000 meter event. Like fellow gold medalists Yang Yang, who was the first Chinese athlete to win a gold medal at the 2002 winter games in Salt Lake City, Wang became the face of China’s winter sports program. This also gave the Heilongjiang native the status as the country’s most decorated Winter Olympics athlete. To top off her accomplishments over the last year, Wang was awarded the Female Athlete of the Year award at the 2010 CCTV Sports Personality Awards ceremony.

However, this summer has not been a good one for neither Wang Meng nor the short track speed skating team. Two incidents over the past two months have put the team in a negative spotlight.

First, some team members were involved in a brawl with security personnel in Lijiang, Yunnan Province which brought about conflicting stories as to who was responsible for the fracas. Apparently, the problem was reconciled by both parties although there has been no confirmation from any members on the team.

Second, with the national team moving their training base from Kunming to Qingdao in Shandong Province it would have seemed that any past incidents would be forgotten so the team could get back on track with preparations for the upcoming short track season. However, a reported brawl between the former captain and the team’s manager, Wang Chunlu, has put them back in a spotlight they have been trying to stay out of since the incident in June.

The most recent incident has not only led to Wang Meng’s expulsion from the national team, but is has also put the team into disarray as it has been reported that some of her teammates, including fellow Vancouver gold medalist Zhou Yang, have quit the team in protest over Wang’s punishment.

Wang Meng shows injuries after most recent altercation

While there is no question that the Winter Sports Administrative Center (WSAC) of the State General Administration of Sport had no choice but to punish Wang, male speed skater Liu Xianwei and others who broke curfew, there are still a few questions that need to be answered.

First of all, national team Head Coach Li Yan mentioned that the expulsion of Wang does not solve the deeper problems within squad. So, what are specifically the deeper problems? As Li did not go into specifics, it is anyone’s guess as to what might be the other problems within the team.

Second, why was team manager Wang Chunlu not punished for her actions? While the former world champion speed skater claims that Wang Meng threw the first punch in the altercation, the Olympic champion fired back by accusing the manager of throwing the first punch.

No matter who threw the first punch, athlete and coach should not be in altercations such as this. Punishment should have come down equally on both sides as those involved in the fracas disgraced not only themselves, but also the team.

Some are questioning why team manager Wang Chunlu went unpunished

Third, does this expulsion spell the end of Wang Meng’s short track career? It is highly unlikely that she will be gone for long. Wang is the best and most experienced skater on the team. Of course, she may not be on the national team in the coming months, but it is doubtful this is the last anyone will hear from the veteran skater. Perhaps the public will learn more about the incident should she follow through with her promise of a press conference.

It should also be noted that Wang Meng is no stranger to being kicked off the national team only to be brought back later. In 2007, she was expelled for openly criticizing her coach’s tactics at the Asian Winter Games in Changchun, Jilin Province. Therefore, it is uncertain how long this expulsion will last.

It is no question that whatever problems that have happened within the team have finally exploded out in the public eye. Morale is at an all time low and it is uncertain as to what measures the WSAC will take to prevent incidents like this from happening again.

What is desperately needed by the short track speed skating is for the summer period to come to an end quickly so that they can return to competition. Perhaps this could put the attention back on their accomplishments on the ice than what goes on off it.

Additional Articles

• China Daily – Wang Meng’s timeline of fracas
• CCTV – Wang Meng Expelled from National Team
• China Daily – Chinese differ over Olympic champ’s expulsion from national team
• Xinhua – Expelled Olympic champ could strap on skates again

Photos

• The Telegraph
• China.org.cn
• QQ Sports

In this candid record provided by one Youku Paike, Zhou’s mother was surrounded by media reporters, pushing for explanations on why her daughter only thought about parents but not THE country. (Youku Paike’s camera was fixed on Zhou’s parents, and only recorded surrounding reporters’ voices.)

The severely hurt mother was defending her daughter with all her power – by simply telling the truth. She said, “(When Zhou started training, all we as parents wanted was for her) to have a skill to find a job in the future, to support herself.” “I never dare to think of this day (when she became an Olympic gold medal winner)!

Pressed by one particular brainwashed female reporter, Zhou’s mother retorted back: “This really hurts us. How can they think this way?” She repeated her astonishment: “I really can’t understand why you think this way.” Simple, direct and powerful from a mother defending her beloved daughter.

The mother said she would never ever “gamble” her daughter for her own good. As disclosed, Zhou tries hard to help her parents, but the mother had no intention to use a single penny that her daughter earned – with tears and blood in my opinion. “Don’t you have a child yourselves? …It’s out of her love… I don’t want to use one single penny…” the mother cried bitterly.

A little recap:

Zhou won gold in the 1,500-meter race and the 3,000-meter relay in her Olympic debut. After her 1,500 win Feb. 20, a breathless Zhou told China Central Television: “It’s my dream. After winning the gold I might change a lot, become more confident and help my parents have a better life.”

She thanked her coach and teammates, but never mentioned the state-run sports system in which she had trained as an athlete for much of her life.

It’s right to respect and thank your parents but you also have to have the country in your heart. The country must come first. Don’t just talk about your parents,” said Yu Zaiqing, deputy director of China’s General Administration of Sport, in widely reported comments earlier this week.

Hate to buck the trend, but if put in context, I actually think Yu Zaiqing’s country-first-parents-later talk is understandable.

Born in 1951, Yu was educated and has been working in the Communist China that favors collectivism to an extreme. And these days, sports happen to be one of a few sectors left where collectivist education and ideology still permeates in the People’s Republic.

I was born in the early 80s. Since the elementary school, the picture of an athlete shedding tears while the Five-stars-red Flag raising slowly with China’s national anthem playing has been imprinted in my brain. It’s a cult-like situation for Chinese athletes, patriotic or nationalistic as you may describe. I would expect them to thank the country anyway, and I think most of my fellow compatriots can relate to this feeling.

I mean, it could be like “I’d like to thank my parents, my leaders in the sports bureau and the country’s great sports system. But that sounds a bit unnatural to be honest. It’s not in the tradition. The traditional sequence would be “the party, the country, the people.”

So in most cases these days in my observation, athletes would rather thank their supporters, which I presume is done in part to avoid the crap. I didn’t really pay attention, and wonder what Wang Bingyu said after they crowned World Women’s Curling Championship last year, considering they didn’t really have any supporters back then.

Unlike Yu Zaiqing, Zhou Yang was born in 1991, and pretty much avoided the collective China and hasn’t trained in the taxpayer-funded sports system for very long. True, we still have “red songs” and “red SMS messages“, but most young Chinese couldn’t care less about them or even enjoy making fun of them.

I think Yu, being a sports official and a party boss, to some extent believes in what he said, and the idea of thanking the country first is not entirely posturing to him. There’s something that people like Yu wants to save and protect.

Take Luo Chaoyi, director of Gymnastics Administrative Center under China’s National Sports Bureau. In a recent interview with China Youth Daily, Luo said the age of Dong Fangxiao is her personal matter and the fact that Dong’s age had been shifted 3 years younger after her retirement was Dong and her family’s own practice.

According to the International Gymnastics Federation’s findings, Dong registered a birth date of January 20, 1983 at Sydney but when accredited to act as “secretary” at vault at the 2008 Beijing Games, had declared her birth date as January 23, 1986.

To put it simple, Luo told a blatant lie. But he did so trying not to jeopardize the National Gymnastic Association and, probably only to the likes of him, the country’s image.

What Yu and Luo said can tell you how unusual and unsophisticated these Chinese sports officials are, to say the least. And in the case of Yu, how stupid the Political Consultative Conference can be.

The golden rule for them: say nothing. But we can expect more of these in the future.

Links and Sources:

• Danwei: Lesson learned, Zhou Yang thanks the country first
• Youku Buzz: Don’t Politicalize the Unnecessary Controversy
• AP: Skater’s gaffe highlights politics of China sports
• South China Morning Post: Skater’s gold tarnished by petty posturing (subscription req’ed)
• WSJ China Real Time: Thanks to Mom or the Motherland?

1DmkIV and 7D on Ice – Winter fun on Beijing’s Houhai lake from Dan Chung on Vimeo.

Another wonderful video from Dan Chung, award-winning photojournalist at The Guardian‘s Beijing bureau.  This reminds me a lot of my childhood. :-)  Go here to read about Beijing’s winter sports in the old days.