Dear KI-Media Readers,
I apologize for this quick diversion to the Beijing Olympics, I couldn't contain my awe at seeing Michael Phelps, this young US swimmer, accomplishing his feats, day after day, in Beijing. The article below also highlights the mentality difference between the east and the west, between the US and China. While watching the distribution of medals to the various athletes, I always dream that maybe one day, I will have the joy to see a Khmer athlete on the podium. ... How I wish that day will come soon...
Thank you for bearing with me,
Heng Soy
I apologize for this quick diversion to the Beijing Olympics, I couldn't contain my awe at seeing Michael Phelps, this young US swimmer, accomplishing his feats, day after day, in Beijing. The article below also highlights the mentality difference between the east and the west, between the US and China. While watching the distribution of medals to the various athletes, I always dream that maybe one day, I will have the joy to see a Khmer athlete on the podium. ... How I wish that day will come soon...
Thank you for bearing with me,
Heng Soy
Michael Phelps has won five gold medals so far in Beijing, but there are empty seats in the Water Cube aquatics center for his races. (Photo: Doug Mills/The New York Times)August 13, 2008
By JERÉ LONGMAN
The New York Times
BEIJING — Before he swam to two more victories Wednesday and became the most successful Olympian in any sport with 11 career gold medals, Michael Phelps received a text message from a former high school buddy.
“Dude, it’s ridiculous how many times a day I have to see your ugly face,” wrote the friend, identified by Phelps as Tyler Kohler.
While Phelps is generating incredible attention in the United States with one record-breaking performance after another, his incandescent attempt to win eight gold medals at the Beijing Games is receiving curiously subdued attention in the country where it is taking place.
There are empty seats in the Water Cube aquatics center for his races, state-run Chinese newspapers are providing muted coverage and a number of people interviewed on the Olympic Green said that their favorite American athletes here were not swimmers but N.B.A. stars like Kobe Bryant and LeBron James.
The world record Phelps set in the 200-meter freestyle Tuesday was relegated to the world report on page 30 of Wednesday’s editions of Titan Sports, a popular Chinese sports newspaper. Another sports daily, The First, played Phelps’s record on page 32, with two photographs and a brief article. A third publication, the Guangming Daily, a leading paper for intellectuals that is not read by the mass public, did not mention Phelps at all.
“I don’t know the name,” said Yang Quilian, 30, a technician working at the gymnastics stadium Tuesday, a day after Phelps participated in an astonishing 4x100-meter relay that also took gold. She thought a minute, then said, “Is he the boy in the relay? He did a great job.”
Generally, people interviewed did know Phelps and said they liked him and respected his otherworldly swimming ability. His races are carried live on television — though rarely if ever replayed — and generate excitement inside the Water Cube. He even has a nickname here, the Flying Fish.
Still, swimming is not an especially popular sport in China. Its elite female swimmers have faded after being involved in embarrassing doping scandals in the 1990s. And no Chinese man had won an Olympic medal in swimming until Zhang Lin took silver in the 400-meter freestyle on Sunday after training with an Australian coach.
In that light, Phelps’s achievements might be the equivalent of a Chinese athlete winning a host of gold medals in badminton at an Olympics held in the United States.
As could be expected, the Chinese news media are more concerned about their own athletes’ victories in such sports as gymnastics, diving, badminton, table tennis, fencing and weight lifting. All of China is eagerly awaiting the 110-meter hurdles, where the country’s most popular Olympian, Liu Xiang, hopes to defend his gold medal from the 2004 Athens Games.
Phelps also seems to be overshadowed in popularity here by such American N.B.A stars as Bryant and James. The league has also heavily invested in China in recent years. Its games are popular and widely viewed. Bryant and James — two of the world’s greatest players — have made several trips through China and Asia in association with Nike, making appearances, taking part in clinics, boosting their name recognition.
While the Olympics are engaging, they are a novelty held once every four years. The N.B.A., meanwhile, has a season running from late October into June.
“The N.B.A. is best,” said Yang Xiu, 23, who works at a newspaper kiosk in the Main Press Center at the Olympics. “We watch almost every game. We know almost every detail, how tall a player is, who can shoot, who can pass. I know Phelps’s race, but I am more familiar with the N.B.A. I can’t swim but I can play basketball.”
A concern about inflaming Chinese nationalism might be another factor at work in the restrained coverage of Phelps, said Susan Brownell, a Fulbright scholar from the United States who is studying the Olympics at Beijing Sport University.
Late last year, or early this year, Brownell said, her colleague, Yi Jiandong, wrote a blog on a popular Web site about how many medals Phelps might win, which brought a vehement response.
“It incited a lot of attacks on him from ultranationalists, who thought that by simply describing Phelps’s quest, he was saying the U.S. was better than China,” Brownell said, adding that the blog was eventually removed from the site, QZone.
“My guess,” Brownell said, “is that with China doing so well, winning so many gold medals, leading the count, it may be an editorial policy that if you give too much attention to Michael Phelps, there could be a danger of inciting ultranationalism: ‘Why are you writing about him when China is doing so well?’ They are sensitive to ultranationalism. They know the world is watching. They don’t want any ugliness.”
A spokesman for Octagon, the management company that represents Phelps, declined to comment beyond saying that Phelps drew a lot of news media and fan attention when he visited China several times in advance of the Games to raise his visibility. Phelps is not likely to be distressed — or even to notice — the modest play he is receiving from the Chinese news media.
For much of the world, he is the main draw at the Games. He draws huge crowds of reporters to his formal postrace news conferences and brief postrace chats, which take place in a kind of cattle chute known as the mixed zone. And he stands to make a $1 million bonus from Speedo, the swimwear company, for winning eight gold medals, which should more than compensate for any lack of buzz.
Wednesday, Phelps spoke in awed tones of the coverage he is receiving in the United States.
“It’s pretty cool to have a country behind you and on your side,” Phelps said. “No matter where any Americans are in the world, they’re watching and cheering. It’s a pretty special feeling.”
It might be said that Phelps occupies a special niche — most popular international athlete not competing directly against a Chinese star. For instance, the Cuban hurdler Dayron Robles, who recently broke Liu’s world record, is viewed as a real threat to China’s most popular athlete. Conversely, there is no Chinese star being left in Phelps’s wake, so there is no reason not to appreciate his accomplishments.
“He’s big time,” said Sang Lan, a former Chinese national gymnastics champion in the vault. “He’s not only defeating his competition, he’s challenging himself all the time.”
Some comments posted on message boards affiliated with Tsinghua University in Beijing were bombastically generous in Phelps’s favor.
“If he was Chinese, his accomplishments would make him even more popular than Yao Ming and Liu Xiang combined,” said one commenter. Another said, “He is definitely one of the 25 greatest athletes of this century; no, actually, he’s one of the top five in all history.”
By Sunday, when Phelps is expected to win his eighth gold medal, perhaps the Chinese news media will respond with the same wide coverage as their American counterparts, said Zhang Chao, 22, a college student. He spread his hand across the top of the front page of a newspaper in the Main Press Center kiosk and said, “Maybe he will be here.”
“Dude, it’s ridiculous how many times a day I have to see your ugly face,” wrote the friend, identified by Phelps as Tyler Kohler.
While Phelps is generating incredible attention in the United States with one record-breaking performance after another, his incandescent attempt to win eight gold medals at the Beijing Games is receiving curiously subdued attention in the country where it is taking place.
There are empty seats in the Water Cube aquatics center for his races, state-run Chinese newspapers are providing muted coverage and a number of people interviewed on the Olympic Green said that their favorite American athletes here were not swimmers but N.B.A. stars like Kobe Bryant and LeBron James.
The world record Phelps set in the 200-meter freestyle Tuesday was relegated to the world report on page 30 of Wednesday’s editions of Titan Sports, a popular Chinese sports newspaper. Another sports daily, The First, played Phelps’s record on page 32, with two photographs and a brief article. A third publication, the Guangming Daily, a leading paper for intellectuals that is not read by the mass public, did not mention Phelps at all.
“I don’t know the name,” said Yang Quilian, 30, a technician working at the gymnastics stadium Tuesday, a day after Phelps participated in an astonishing 4x100-meter relay that also took gold. She thought a minute, then said, “Is he the boy in the relay? He did a great job.”
Generally, people interviewed did know Phelps and said they liked him and respected his otherworldly swimming ability. His races are carried live on television — though rarely if ever replayed — and generate excitement inside the Water Cube. He even has a nickname here, the Flying Fish.
Still, swimming is not an especially popular sport in China. Its elite female swimmers have faded after being involved in embarrassing doping scandals in the 1990s. And no Chinese man had won an Olympic medal in swimming until Zhang Lin took silver in the 400-meter freestyle on Sunday after training with an Australian coach.
In that light, Phelps’s achievements might be the equivalent of a Chinese athlete winning a host of gold medals in badminton at an Olympics held in the United States.
As could be expected, the Chinese news media are more concerned about their own athletes’ victories in such sports as gymnastics, diving, badminton, table tennis, fencing and weight lifting. All of China is eagerly awaiting the 110-meter hurdles, where the country’s most popular Olympian, Liu Xiang, hopes to defend his gold medal from the 2004 Athens Games.
Phelps also seems to be overshadowed in popularity here by such American N.B.A stars as Bryant and James. The league has also heavily invested in China in recent years. Its games are popular and widely viewed. Bryant and James — two of the world’s greatest players — have made several trips through China and Asia in association with Nike, making appearances, taking part in clinics, boosting their name recognition.
While the Olympics are engaging, they are a novelty held once every four years. The N.B.A., meanwhile, has a season running from late October into June.
“The N.B.A. is best,” said Yang Xiu, 23, who works at a newspaper kiosk in the Main Press Center at the Olympics. “We watch almost every game. We know almost every detail, how tall a player is, who can shoot, who can pass. I know Phelps’s race, but I am more familiar with the N.B.A. I can’t swim but I can play basketball.”
A concern about inflaming Chinese nationalism might be another factor at work in the restrained coverage of Phelps, said Susan Brownell, a Fulbright scholar from the United States who is studying the Olympics at Beijing Sport University.
Late last year, or early this year, Brownell said, her colleague, Yi Jiandong, wrote a blog on a popular Web site about how many medals Phelps might win, which brought a vehement response.
“It incited a lot of attacks on him from ultranationalists, who thought that by simply describing Phelps’s quest, he was saying the U.S. was better than China,” Brownell said, adding that the blog was eventually removed from the site, QZone.
“My guess,” Brownell said, “is that with China doing so well, winning so many gold medals, leading the count, it may be an editorial policy that if you give too much attention to Michael Phelps, there could be a danger of inciting ultranationalism: ‘Why are you writing about him when China is doing so well?’ They are sensitive to ultranationalism. They know the world is watching. They don’t want any ugliness.”
A spokesman for Octagon, the management company that represents Phelps, declined to comment beyond saying that Phelps drew a lot of news media and fan attention when he visited China several times in advance of the Games to raise his visibility. Phelps is not likely to be distressed — or even to notice — the modest play he is receiving from the Chinese news media.
For much of the world, he is the main draw at the Games. He draws huge crowds of reporters to his formal postrace news conferences and brief postrace chats, which take place in a kind of cattle chute known as the mixed zone. And he stands to make a $1 million bonus from Speedo, the swimwear company, for winning eight gold medals, which should more than compensate for any lack of buzz.
Wednesday, Phelps spoke in awed tones of the coverage he is receiving in the United States.
“It’s pretty cool to have a country behind you and on your side,” Phelps said. “No matter where any Americans are in the world, they’re watching and cheering. It’s a pretty special feeling.”
It might be said that Phelps occupies a special niche — most popular international athlete not competing directly against a Chinese star. For instance, the Cuban hurdler Dayron Robles, who recently broke Liu’s world record, is viewed as a real threat to China’s most popular athlete. Conversely, there is no Chinese star being left in Phelps’s wake, so there is no reason not to appreciate his accomplishments.
“He’s big time,” said Sang Lan, a former Chinese national gymnastics champion in the vault. “He’s not only defeating his competition, he’s challenging himself all the time.”
Some comments posted on message boards affiliated with Tsinghua University in Beijing were bombastically generous in Phelps’s favor.
“If he was Chinese, his accomplishments would make him even more popular than Yao Ming and Liu Xiang combined,” said one commenter. Another said, “He is definitely one of the 25 greatest athletes of this century; no, actually, he’s one of the top five in all history.”
By Sunday, when Phelps is expected to win his eighth gold medal, perhaps the Chinese news media will respond with the same wide coverage as their American counterparts, said Zhang Chao, 22, a college student. He spread his hand across the top of the front page of a newspaper in the Main Press Center kiosk and said, “Maybe he will be here.”
3 comments:
Make sure that he has blood test at the end. I hope he won't like the American woman 100 champion who cried a few years later.
2:42 AM
I'm certain that he had been through this process already.
http://beijingolympic2008live.blogspot.com
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