Why Olympics shows China still has mountain to climb to earn West’s respect in sporting arena
- Rivals recognise how hard Chinese athletes work, and appreciation for divers is unequivocal, but drug row, track failures dilute achievements
A question asked by Zhang Yufei spotlighted the issue of how China’s sporting prowess is viewed around the world.
As battle lines were drawn between China and the Western world following Pan Zhanle’s staggering swim for Olympic 100 metres freestyle gold, teammate Zhang, who claimed four bronze medals in Paris, wanted to know, “why are Chinese athletes questioned when they swim fast, but no one dared to question [Michael] Phelps or [Katie] Ledecky’.”
China finished with 40 gold medals at the 2024 Summer Games, the country’s best return from an overseas Olympics, and equal to the USA’s haul, but respect for that achievement will be even harder won.
Zhang was referring to the doping allegations that tarnished any notable Chinese swimming performance in the French capital. The scepticism stemmed from 23 Chinese swimmers failing drugs tests before the Tokyo Olympics, and the World Anti-Doping Agency [Wada] only publicly confirming those results in April this year, following reports from The New York Times and German television channel ARD.
Wada had accepted the findings of Chinese doping authorities, who claimed the swimmers had eaten food contaminated in a hotel kitchen.
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China’s 17-year-old diving queen has 3 Olympic golds, but who is Quan Hongchan?
After the Olympic swimming competition, The Washington Post published an opinion piece titled, ‘The 12 medals that Chinese swimmers won in Paris will be forever tainted’.
