Letters | Paralympics success proves China is world’s greatest sporting nation

Readers discuss true sporting success, Hong Kong hosting international sports events, the merits of full-time classes and Cantopop group Mirror’s effect on the city

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Shuai Zhao of China celebrates after winning gold in the men’s team table tennis at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo on September 2. Photo: Reuters

Published: 12:30am, 9 Sep 2021

The Tokyo Summer Olympics magnified the United States’ need to be seen as the world’s pre-eminent sporting power, regardless of how that was spun. The US media tends to show the medal table, not by gold medal totals – where the US topped China on the last day of competition – but by total medals.

The platform for the US’ sporting success, its collegiate sporting system, turns out many world-class athletes but also thousands indebted graduates every year. The need to win and have the most medals has become a millstone around the country’s neck rather than a symbol of its success.

The question is how do you judge which is the greatest sporting nation on Earth. Is it the one that claims the title at the Olympics, or do you judge success across the Olympics and the Paralympics?

The US ended the Paralympics in third place by gold medal count. China was, by some distance, first in the gold medal and total medal counts.

Paralympians arguably have to face even greater challenges than their able-bodied counterparts to succeed at the very highest level, so their success should at least be on a par with them. China, with its combined success in the Olympics and Paralympics, is the greatest sporting nation on Earth. The US comes in a distant second.

Gunther Homerlein, Pok Fu Lam