At the 2016 Rio Olympics, the Chinese delegation performed ordinary, winning 26 gold medals, ranking third in the gold medal table, second only to the United Kingdom. This result is considered to be the worst since China's participation in the Olympic Games.
Although the Chinese women's volleyball team performed well in the game, successfully won the Olympic championship and added glory to national sports, it could not hide the overall downward trend of the entire delegation in the current Olympic Games.
It is worth noting that this is not the first time this has happened, as there were similar sluggish performances at the 1988 Seoul Olympics 28 years ago.
Looking back at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games, especially considering the Chinese delegation's brilliant record of 15 gold medals at the last 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, the performance at the Seoul Olympics is even more striking and incomprehensible.
However, there are always ups and downs in life. For the Chinese delegation, which had participated in the Olympic Games relatively few times at that time, the experience of participating in the Olympic Games was a valuable asset.
More importantly, the achievements of the Chinese army at that time were closely related to the complicated international situation at that time. The Olympic Games are not just a stage for sports competition, but also deeply intertwined with political factors.
So, how did the 1988 Seoul Olympics change?
In stark contrast to the glory of the Los Angeles Olympics, the media generally described the performance of the Chinese delegation at the Seoul Olympics as a "defeat", which is a conclusion drawn from a comparison with the last Los Angeles Olympics.
Four years ago, the Chinese team achieved remarkable results in the Los Angeles Olympics in the United States, and this Olympic Games marked a huge breakthrough for the Chinese delegation. In that year, shooting athlete Xu Haifeng won the first gold medal in the history of the Summer Olympics for the Chinese delegation; the Chinese women's volleyball team won the Olympic gold medal, becoming the first and only team event on the mainland to stand on the top podium of the Olympic Games in three major ball events; and Li Ning, the "Prince of Gymnastics," performed brilliantly, winning three gold medals, plus two silver medals and one bronze medal, becoming the athlete with the most medals at the Olympic Games.
In the medal table, the Chinese delegation ranked fourth with a total of 15 gold, 8 silver and 9 bronze medals, behind the host United States (83 gold, 61 silver and 30 bronze), Romania (20 gold, 16 silver and 17 bronze) and the Federal Republic of Germany (i.e. the former West Germany, 17 gold, 19 silver and 23 bronze). As a delegation that had just won the first gold medal in the history of that competition, the breakthrough of the Chinese army was pleasantly surprised.
However, after years of dedication and hard work, the mainland has cultivated a number of Olympic champions, demonstrated the strong strength of the Chinese delegation, and laid the foundation for the mainland to become a sports power. The stellar performance in Los Angeles made the Seoul Olympics look forward to four years later, but in the end, the Seoul Olympics turned out to be a frustrating nightmare.
In that year's competition, the Chinese delegation sent 301 athletes (some say 299) to participate in the competition, an increase of 76 from 225 at the Los Angeles Olympics four years ago, setting a new record for the number of participants in the Chinese delegation.
However, despite the increase in the number of participants, the final result was rather dismal, with only 5 gold, 11 silver and 12 bronze medals, ranking 11th in the medal table.
September 17, 1988 was the first day of competition at the Olympic Games. The Chinese team had three gold points on this day: Xu Haifeng and Wang Yifu in the men's free pistol, He Zhuoqiang, who was ranked in the top three in the world at the time in the men's weightlifting 52kg class, and two female players Zhang Qiuping and Li Dan participated in the women's air rifle competition, which is expected to win the first gold medal for the Chinese team.
However, the reality is cruelly contrary to the ideal. In the men's pistol free-selection final, defending champion Xu Haifeng failed to repeat his outstanding performance four years ago, finishing only 27th and even failing to reach the final, shocking the Chinese people, the two competitors in the women's air rifle also performed abnormally and failed to qualify for the final, and He Zhuoqiang, the only normal performer, won the bronze medal in the men's weightlifting 52kg category, barely allowing the Chinese delegation to gain something on the first day.
The Chinese delegation's first gold medal was not won until the next day, when diver Xu Yanmei won the gold medal in the women's 10m platform event, and the five-star red flag was raised on the podium of the Seoul Olympics for the first time.
Of course, even at this time, it was widely believed that the Chinese delegation would be expected to achieve results comparable to those of Los Angeles at the Games.
The events on which people have high hopes, gymnastics and women's volleyball, have not yet been competitive. People expect that Li Ning, a superstar in the field of gymnastics, and the Chinese women's volleyball team, which has won three consecutive championships in Los Angeles, can win honor for the Chinese delegation and reinvigorate its prestige.
However, it is precisely these two highly anticipated projects that have given the Chinese people the most painful disappointment.
The gymnastics competition began on the fourth day of competition at the Olympic Games. Li Ning, the 25-year-old prince of gymnastics at the time, led the team to the Seoul Olympics as the captain of the Chinese gymnastics team.
Despite being at the peak of his age and technical ability, Li Ning's performance in the competition was unexpected: he unexpectedly fell to the ground in the vault competition and failed to reach the final, and in the rings event, which he won four years ago, Li Ning actually hung his feet on the rings while completing the move, and such a major mistake made him hopeless to defend his title.
In the team competition, Li Ning also played abnormally, losing his former lightness and elegance, causing the Chinese men's team to lose the top three positions under his mistakes and ultimately failed to win a medal. Li Ning was also gloomy in this event, failing to achieve any results, and the end was embarrassing.
However, what the outside world does not know is that due to long-term hard training, Li Ning has long been injured and scarred.
Before the Seoul Olympics, Li Ning suffered a serious leg injury, even serious enough to force him to retire early (in fact, after the Seoul Olympics, Li Ning chose to officially retire from gymnastics).
In order not to affect the preparation for the competition, as well as the expectations of the outside world for Li Ning and the Chinese gymnastics team, the gymnastics team remained silent to the outside world and did not disclose Li Ning's injury.
Despite the keen eyes of the masses, due to a lack of understanding, Li Ning has suddenly become the target of public criticism from the prince of gymnastics and the Olympic hero four years ago.
According to Li Ning's recollection, when the gymnastics team returned to China, he deliberately waited until everyone else left the plane after the flight landed, and then left in a hurry to avoid communicating with the crowd in the reception hall to avoid being discovered.
However, there was still a keen staff member who recognized him in the passage and made an astonishing comment: "Li Ning, where did you fall badly, you actually ran to (participate) in the Olympics and fell!"
These remarks may have been unintentional, but they were a heavy blow to Li Ning, making him deeply ashamed, so he could only bow his head and hurriedly walk to the end of the passage.
Li Ning endured personal frustration alone, and at the same time, the entire team of the Chinese women's volleyball team also faced great embarrassment.
As the defending champion, and having just won the "five consecutive championships" of the FIVB in two World Cups (1981, 1985), two World Championships (1982, 1986) and the Los Angeles Olympics (1984), the Chinese women's volleyball team has received more attention than Li Ning.
This women's volleyball team is known for their tenacious and hard-working "women's volleyball spirit", and is the most promising team of the Chinese Legion to win medals in team events. Although veterans Lang Ping, Sun Jinfang, Zhang Rongfang and others have retired, the Chinese women's volleyball team still carries huge expectations, and fans expect them to achieve brilliant results in the Seoul Olympics.
Expectations are directly proportional to disappointment. In the first stage of the group stage, the Chinese women's volleyball team unexpectedly lost to the South American powerhouse Peru under a highly optimistic situation, and finally ranked second in the group. In the semifinals of the knockout round, facing the Soviet team, which eventually won the championship, the Chinese women's volleyball team was defeated 0-3, and lost 0-15 in the first game, suffering the "shaved head" insult of the Soviet team.
In the bronze medal match, although he defeated another South American powerhouse, Brazil, he lost 2-15 in the first game, which made the Chinese people lament.
It needs to be explained that the scoring rules of volleyball at that time were different from the current 25 points per game + 15 points in the tiebreaker, but the 15 points per game + service system. Therefore, if the serve is in the opponent's hands, the opponent can score consecutive points, resulting in an exaggerated score of 0-15.
Compared with the triumphant scene in Los Angeles four years ago, the Chinese women's volleyball team missed the gold medal this time, and no one even went to pick up the plane when they returned home.
There are many objective reasons for the loss, including the team's failure to replace the old and new players in time after losing famous players such as Lang Ping and Zhang Rongfang, the team's age and injury-ridden, and insufficient training intensity.
However, the more important reason is the stagnation of the development of the Chinese women's volleyball team itself. The famous writer Zhao Yu pointed out in the sports literature "Defeat in Seoul" that an important reason why the Chinese women's volleyball team did not perform as well as four years ago was that they lagged behind in terms of technology and tactics.
The success achieved in Los Angeles four years ago not only stemmed from the fact that there were super scorers like Lang Ping at that time, but more importantly, the Chinese women's volleyball team's use and innovation in women's volleyball technology, leading the development trend of the world women's volleyball team: comprehensive technology, exquisite small ball tandem, one-foot jumping fastball (back flying) tactics, echelon blocking, etc.
These technologies used to be the magic weapon of the Chinese women's volleyball team, and they are far from the "women's volleyball spirit" that people talk about.
Zhao Yu bluntly pointed out that the empty shouting of "dare to fight and dare to fight" cannot solve the problem, and the spirit of such a women's volleyball team is a tree without roots and water without a source.
With the retirement of Yuan Weimin, the Chinese women's volleyball team has been experiencing a change of head coach during the Seoul Olympic cycle, which has had a great impact on the team's system management and inheritance.
The head coach at the time, Li Yao, was inexperienced enough to gain widespread recognition, and at the same time, he failed to solve the problems of declining physical fitness of the old players and the lack of experience of the new players in the competition.
The lack of systematic training led to a decline in the level, and in the Olympics, facing the powerful Soviet team, the two crucial links of serve and pass collapsed instantly, and the Chinese team was powerless to fight back throughout the semi-finals.
In the end, in the entire Seoul Olympic Games, the Chinese delegation scored a total of 5 gold, 11 silver and 12 bronze, and the silver and bronze medals have improved compared with four years ago, but the number of gold medals has decreased by a full 10. Many of the events we expected to be in the gold medal have suffered setbacks, and many athletes have experienced embarrassments similar to those of Li Ning and the women's volleyball team.
At least in terms of the number of gold medals, the Seoul Olympics brought to an abrupt end the good upward momentum that the Chinese delegation had achieved in Los Angeles four years ago.
This time, the complexity of the international situation is not in our favor.
From the point of view of subjective reasons, after the reform and opening up, the overall strength of the mainland has been significantly enhanced, and the development of sports has become an important part of the national agenda.
Years of arduous preparation and the mainland's huge population base have made participating in the Olympics and winning medals and even gold medals the primary goal of the mainland's sports delegation.
Although the mainland was unable to participate in the 1980 Moscow Olympics for political reasons, the strength of the continent's sports delegation was already high enough to compete for Olympic gold medals.
For example, the five consecutive championships of the Chinese women's volleyball team, Li Ning's six gold medals won in the 1982 World Cup gymnastics, as well as shooting, weightlifting, table tennis and other advantageous events, all laid the foundation for the huge breakthroughs we made at the Los Angeles Olympics.
Of course, the above analysis is mainly from the point of view of sports competition. However, sport and politics have always been closely linked, especially the Olympic Games, which are a comprehensive event with strong political overtones.
The international situation has a huge impact on the Olympic Games, because the athletes represent each country, and if a country chooses not to participate in the Olympic Games, it will be the outstanding athletes of that country who will suffer the most.
In the eighties of the last century, the international situation was extremely chaotic. The world is looming over the escalating Cold War, with political boycotts occurring in the two Olympics leading up to the Seoul Olympics.
As we all know, the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 80s of the last century was the main theme at that time. The 1980 and 1984 Olympic Games were hosted in two countries, the United States and the Soviet Union:
The 1980 Moscow Olympics, due to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, triggered the indignation of most of the world's countries, led by the Western capitalist countries, to the Soviet Union's aggression, which led these countries to boycott the Moscow Olympics.
The Olympics are considered to be the least significant in history. Behind the hundreds of gold medals won by the Soviet delegation, all the major sports powers led by the United States were absent, and the competitive elements were thoroughly politicized.
In 1984, the Olympic flame was relayed to Los Angeles, USA. However, a number of socialist countries, led by the Soviet Union (excluding China), chose to boycott the Olympics again.
According to statistics, in 1984, the total number of IOC members was 159, and 140 countries and regions participated in the Los Angeles Olympics, while 19 countries and regions failed to participate due to boycotts or other reasons, including the gold medal powerhouses the Soviet Union and East Germany.
These countries had considerable gold medal contenders at the Games, but the inability of athletes to compete in the Games has created a vacuum in their Olympic strengths that needs to be filled by other countries.
Objectively, the 15 gold medals won by the Chinese delegation at the 1984 Olympics are closely related to this reason.
By 1988 in Seoul, the international situation had changed dramatically. The political turmoil in the Soviet Union gradually tilted it towards the West, and irreversible changes took place in the camp of socialist countries. These countries have gained more autonomy and are participating in the Olympics.
According to statistics, the IOC had a total of 159 registered countries and regions at that time, all of which participated in the Seoul Olympics. Four years later, at the time of the Barcelona Olympics, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the political upheaval in Eastern Europe led to the eventual changes in the Seoul Games, making it the first Olympic Games in which all member states participated.
In terms of the number of athletes, the U.S. delegation sent 612 athletes in Seoul, the Soviet Union sent 524, and the host South Korea sent 467. By comparison, at Beijing 2008, the host Chinese delegation had 639 athletes and won 51 gold medals.
However, by 1988, the total number of athletes in the Chinese delegation was about 300. At that time, mainland athletes did not have dozens of gold points as they do now, and the vast majority of athletes had no hope of winning medals in the competition.
As a result, the advantages of the Chinese delegation in many gold events four years ago are no longer evident in this Olympic Games, which face fierce competition. Continental athletes are clearly not sufficiently prepared for this.
Lack of preparation, coupled with the fact that many athletes are suffering from injuries or going through a transition (such as Li Ning and the women's volleyball team), as well as some older athletes who are past their peak (such as Xu Haifeng), the success of four years ago has greatly raised the expectations of the athletes. This is why there is a saying that "the army defeated Seoul".
However, after learning from the painful experience, the Chinese delegation paid more attention to the objective laws of sports, trained diligently, innovated, and made great efforts. In the end, at the Barcelona Olympics four years later, the Chinese delegation successfully made a comeback, regaining the fourth place in the medal table with 16 golds, 22 silvers and 16 bronzes.
According to the standards of the Seoul Olympics, the Rio Olympics was also a "defeat" for the Chinese delegation.
As mentioned at the beginning of the article, the Chinese team also suffered a setback at Rio 2016, with only 26 gold medals, 12 fewer than at the London Olympics four years ago, and was overtaken by Great Britain in the medal table to fall to third.
However, the mainland sports delegation and sports fans across the country have been able to look at the results of the Olympics with a normal mind. There are several reasons for this: Victory or defeat is a common thing in soldiers, and it is normal for athletes' performance to fluctuate; the people have a better understanding of athletes, a clearer understanding of their living conditions, and a more tolerant and understanding of them; in addition, the mainland's comprehensive national strength has been greatly enhanced, and there is no longer a need to judge athletes' performance by the "gold medal theory."
As the quadrennial Olympic Games approach, we have the opportunity to enjoy sports competitions with a peaceful mind, feel the beauty of competition, and appreciate the Olympic spirit of "higher, faster, stronger".
It is particularly worth mentioning that in the upcoming Tokyo Olympics, the Chinese delegation has successfully "regained lost ground": with 38 gold medals, it almost overtook the traditional hegemon United States team (39 golds) in the gold medal table.
The silver and bronze medals are also more evenly distributed, the strengths are more abundant than before, and our athletes have demonstrated excellent competition in most of the events.
In addition, our athletes are praised for their sunny and cheerful and energetic image, which has won the respect of the whole world and shown the mainland a brand-new style of a great power on the big stage of the Olympic Games.
To put it in a fashionable phrase, "After Seoul there is always Barcelona, and after Rio there is always Tokyo." ”
We firmly believe in the Olympic spirit of "higher, faster and stronger", and we believe that the Chinese army will continue to fight tenaciously in the Olympic Games and write new glories!