<p>I wish someone had made me begin a sport at the age of 3 and take the time and resources to train me.</p>
<p>I'm complaining about the posts that characterize Chinese as subhuman.</p>
<p>I'm still wondering whether woami was joking when she claimed that Chinese athletes were faking high fives.</p>
<p>I like when the announcer said something to the effect of "we know that the Russians and the Romanians have broken the age rule before, but never as blatantly as the Chinese are right now".</p>
<p>I wouldn't be surprised if when they say the Chinese gymnasts get picked when they're three, they really mean they get picked at birth and are declared to be three years old so they "qualify" for the olympics earlier.</p>
<p>Chaoses, the problem is that the Chinese gymnasts have "official" documents stating their ages to be 16. However, there have been reports/allegations that their coaches were introducing them as younger than now-eligible Olympic age a year or two ago, but when it came closer to trials and the girls were rapidly improving, the coaches began saying they were older. They produced documents stating they were of age to compete, but those documents are easily falsified if the government wants you to compete badly enough. The IOC won't investigate because of those documents, thus no banning. Like others have said, it's not the first time people have lied about their age to compete.</p>
<p>^ the only proof they needed were passports. No other documents, I believe, and those could be falsified.</p>
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The little girl would feel hurt when she read what you wrote. Did they tell her she was "too ugly"? It seems like those are your words, not theirs. They deem the girl not as perfect as this other one but that doesn't mean she was considered "too ugly". Also, the girl that was on the stage has been on TV before and 3 years older (and maybe even stage trained). I'd personally feel more comfortable and confident to put her in front of 92,000 people than this other 7-yo. How do you know that wasn't part of the consideration? Maybe that's part of the reason and that was what exactly they told that little girl? When I was in my fourth-grade, I was the alternate to represent my class for a performance. I understood I was the second best and I was proud of it! Perhaps the girl was a little upset that she wasn't the one to go like she thought she would but it's likely she would still be proud that she "almost" went. Now I hope the global media on this doesn't reach her!!!
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<p>You DO realize the 7 year old was suppose to be actually on stage until she got replaced by the 9 year old recently? A government official pointed out "her teeth was crooked, and her cheeks were chubby." they claimed she was not "suitable." wth do you think that means? learn to grow some common sense. "who was considered chubby and not attractive enough to appear on the stage." Do they have to write it out for you? they aren't going to claim "oh she's too ugly" to the world. (And she really isn't! she's adorable!) I feel sorry for the girl's parents to be honest, because she WASN'T the second best and there was no need for her to feel that way.</p>
<p>I thought the blue screen incident was funny after all the preparation that went into it, but I didn't think it was that big of a deal since its human (or windows) error. </p>
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it's about being honest and trustworthy. the government definitely needs work to do on this front.
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<p>I honestly liked the opening show, it just seems like they were trying to put up a front or something. I think it would have been better if they didn't want everything to be so 'perfect' when obviously that wasn't the case here. When I'm watching a hollywood film I know it's not real. However, I wasn't told that certain parts of the show weren't real so that's why I feel like I was fooled... along with 4 billion viewers around the world. It wasn't really the show, it just felt like they weren't being honest with us to start out with.</p>
<p>And like other people said.. differnt types of lipsyncing. Why do you think Milli Vanilli no longer exists?</p>
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That's pretty retarded. Again, I understand the requirements, but god, in a population of 1.3billion, how is it not possible to find a girl that satisfies all of them?
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Totally agreed! I read a quote exactly like that from a chinese citizen saying something along the lines of "now it looks like we can't even find a girl who's good at both!"
HOWEVER....
That little 9 year old girl will be Zhang Yimou directors (the producer of the opening) new movie apparently... Don't see any connections here?</p>
<p>Anybody see that Japanese guy just bite it on the rings? That was epic.</p>
<p>No doubt was at least one of the Chinese girls underage, NO DOUBT. The one girl, look at her teeth closely when she smiled and you can see that she still had baby teeth and adult teeth growing. There is noo way that she was 16 or over, not even close (even if she is a late-bloomer, biological growth can't lie.). The passport(s) were definitely falsified. I guess this is beside the point now that the Chinese gymnasts have won (admittedly, they kicked butt compared to the Americans and did deserve the gold). Still, not cool to cheat </p>
<p>And I am not racist or trying to categorize everyone in any way (I'm 1/2 Chinese-taiwanese myself). But I just have to say, the huge majority of Chinese people tend to care FAR FAR FAR too much about "keeping face." Americans have our ridiculous "rah-rah" pride, but to Chinese people, losing face is essentially their worst nightmare. Can you imagine how hard every single Chinese athlete would have trained for the Olympics in Beijing? I bet you, likely 10x harder than anyone else (even when everyone else trains ridiculously hard). Why? Because if they didn't try their darndest to win the Gold medal (and only the gold), they would not lose face in front of their family, they would shame their country and their people. This is perhaps one reason why they chose to "cover up" the 7-year-old girl's teeth with a 9-year old girl with a "pretty face." Because, of course, they care far too much about "keeping face" that it has become an obsession to create a perfect facade for everything. Ok, I'll stop with my rant now :)</p>
<p>yes it was, it was a miracle he didn't break his legs or at least a sprain</p>
<p>Can't wait for athletics to start GO JAMAICA!!!</p>
<p>@fabrizio: I'm not saying that the Chinese can't express camaraderie or are subhuman, just that to me, those high fives and tens aren't done enthusiastically, but done as a gesture. When I see high fives/tens, it's usually with enthusiasm, with a grin, or at least a look of accomplishment. I'm not saying I excel at reading faces, but it appears to me that the coaches' faces are stern (as in, there's not really a twinkle in their eyes) when they high five the players. I see much of this in the men's gymnastics. On the really good scores though, I see the coaches' faces light up and they actually smile as they high five/ten the players. It could be that I'm just used to seeing Americans show a lot of emotion when something goes really well or really wrong.
By the way, I am a he (likes weird names)
@Sam Lee Yes, it is true I get much of my information from english sources; I cannot read Chinese myself. I admit that I already have a pretty biased view of China due to its attempt to purge Tiananmen Square from google. Also, my dad sometimes goes on business trips to China and he has told me of some of his experiences in China. (Taxi deciding to drop him off on the side of the highway and telling him to cross the highway to get to his hotel, enormous gap between poor and wealthy [High ranking government officials get to share a fleet of benz sl 600s (his coworkers told him, not sure how much of that is true)], the general environment as he sees it, etc). Yes, the West does dramatize China, but what about news about China online? In Chinese? My mom sometimes shares what she reads, such the unsanitary conditions of some food processing factories (I can't help but imagine The Jungle by Sinclair).
@ Rutiene By circumstances and expectations, do you mean the loyalty the Chinese show to their motherland? I don't really understand, sorry :-(. Or is it a really big deal to help out the government? The figure that I got from TIME is 400k students enrolled in these sport schools.I do commend China for supporting 400k families though. I don't really understand about honor though. There are 900 mil farmers in China in 2006 (gotten from china gov website) who live on an average of 1.2 USD a day. I confess that I don't know the price of food and necessities in China, but I'm pretty sure that 1.2 USD a day in China won't buy much in terms of clothes, and staying warm in the winter. The point I'm trying to make is that China provides a massive incentive for parents to be lining up their children to try out for these sport schools. I don't see much about it being an honor though.</p>
<p>eh, who cares if they're younger. It would be even more embrassing for everyone else if they were.</p>
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It would be even more embrassing for everyone else if they were.
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<p>This is not true--in woman's gymnastics, a lot of the moves are easier for younger athletes to do. If it were allowed, all countries would be training athletes harder when they were younger to capitalize on that youth. Remember, many of the girls on the “magnificent seven” 1996 US woman’s team were under sixteen (the age limit was lower then).</p>
<p>Is there any point in arguing all these?</p>
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Remember, many of the girls on the “magnificent seven” 1996 US woman’s team were under sixteen (the age limit was lower then).
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<p>exactly. i don't think anyone is saying that the china team shouldn't have won based on performance, but shouldn't have won because of rules.</p>
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Granted, the air pollution is a lot worse than Houston but so far, there's no reported collapse of any athletes like you'd probably imagined based on what the media in the West painted before the Games (probably a huge disappointment to a lot of people who like knocking China)!
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<p>Actually, I heard a lot of cyclists dropped out of the cycling event because of the pollution.</p>
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Is there any point in arguing all these?
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<p>Nope, there isn't. I wish we could celebrate human strength and dedication instead of governmental greed for gold.</p>
<p>The fact is that the Chinese government is using the Soviet system for their model, which was also quite aggressive when it came to athletics.</p>
<p>I just don't like all this sketchiness. 12 year old gymnasts posing as 16 year olds?! (One of them was still missing a tooth!) Chinese swimmers coming out of nowhere to get gold?! I don't like it at all.</p>
<p>I just saw the Japanese gymnast's horrible fall from the rings. The poor guy! :( That looked painful, I hope he's okay.</p>
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I'm still wondering whether woami was joking when she claimed that Chinese athletes were faking high fives.
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<p>Why would people fake high fives? even if I suck after performing something I can still high five. People from different places have different perspective of things and the way they do things might just be different. And that's one thing we, in america, need to understand. We can't just go around and tell people to follow our standard (good or bad) and if they don't, oops "that's human right violation!"</p>
<p>For example, in English, you can say "YES, YESSSSSSSSS! YEAHHHHH!!" after winning like the American relay team did. It would make sense because of the word. The French swimmers, can't just say "OUI", "OUIIIIIIIIIIIII", "DAMN IT OUIIIIIII" when they win. It just doesn't sound right.</p>
<p>"Chinese swimmers coming out of nowhere to get gold?! I don't like it at all."</p>
<p>What the hell?! You don't like it at all? Well, stop watching the freaking olympics!
They worked very hard to get that backstroke gold and you can't even appreciate their endurance and athleticism? You're a disgrace.</p>
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I heard a lot of cyclists dropped out of the cycling event because of the pollution.
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Olympic</a> bike race could have been worse with fears about pollution -- chicagotribune.com
You mean you read from this article? Well, it doesn't prove it's the pollution that makes them drop out, not the heat, humidity, and the incline. Are you sure if the event were held in Houston and if it's hilly, the same thing wouldn't happen? I haven't heard athletes for other sports: beach volleyball, tennis..etc dropped out yet.<br>
Smog</a> fails to shroud road-race cyclists - Olympics - Yahoo! Sports</p>
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Chinese swimmers coming out of nowhere to get gold?! I don't like it at all.
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You are taking a cheap shot at them here. First of all, China won only one gold in swimming, not a ton. The swimmer, even if found doping later, doesn't necessarily reflect the rest of the team. Jessica Hardy failed drug test; you don't think the US swimming isn't clean, do you?</p>
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Nope, there isn't. I wish we could celebrate human strength and dedication instead of governmental greed for gold.</p>
<p>The fact is that the Chinese government is using the Soviet system for their model, which was also quite aggressive when it came to athletics.</p>
<p>I just don't like all this sketchiness. 12 year old gymnasts posing as 16 year olds?! (One of them was still missing a tooth!) Chinese swimmers coming out of nowhere to get gold?! I don't like it at all.
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If you don't like it at all, turn off the television. Nobody is forcing you to watch. Not that many people are going to defend some of the policies of the Chinese government, but if you feel it is necessary to belittle and demean the accomplishments of people who have probably worked harder than you can ever imagine, then you probably shouldn't watch anyways.</p>