Author: Yang Danxu
On July 29, China lost a good game in the men's team final of competitive gymnastics at the Paris Olympics, and was reversed by Japan due to a mistake in the final round. (Reuters)
On the third day of the Paris Olympics, Chinese social media set off a familiar storm of public opinion.
On Monday (July 29), local time, in the Olympic competitive gymnastics men's team final, Chinese athletes led the second-ranked Japan team with a 3.267 point advantage after the first five rounds.
Many Chinese sports fans who stayed up late to watch the games almost agreed that the gold medal with the highest gold content in the Olympic gymnastics event was nine out of ten. Former Chinese Olympic champion Chen Yibing even posted on Weibo to celebrate the Chinese men's gymnastics team's regain of the team gold medal before the end of the final round of competition.
China's Su Weide made a mistake in the horizontal bar competition. (China News Service)
No one expected that the reversal would happen. In the final round, substitute Chinese player Su Weide made a series of major mistakes in the horizontal bar competition, falling off the bar twice. In the end, the Chinese men's team lost a good game with a slight difference of 0.532 points, and gave up the gold medal to the old rival Japan. At the post-game press conference, Su Weide couldn't hide his blame and choked up to apologize to his teammates.
The Chinese people are not paying much attention to the Paris Olympics. After the opening of the Olympics, there were some heated discussions on the Internet, such as the multiculturalism presented by the host France at the opening ceremony, Chinese athletes winning gold in shooting, diving and other competitions, etc., and after the gymnastics men's team missed the gold medal, Chinese social media completely exploded.
Uneasy netizens pointed the finger at Su Weide, and before dawn, a storm of public opinion against Su Weide swept in, accusing, ridiculing, and insulting. Netizens pointed out that his lack of strength caused his teammates to lose the gold medal for the Chinese team; The apology attitude is not good enough and there is no sincerity; Some people even attacked him for being thin and weak, and his arm muscles were not like gymnasts, etc. Because Su Weide substituted for his teammates who were injured before the game in this competition, some netizens began to dig into his background and question him as a "relation".
After the day's competition, China ranked third in the gold medal table with five gold medals, while Japan jumped to first place in the gold medal table with six gold medals after winning the men's gymnastics team gold medal, which was difficult for many Chinese netizens to accept. Some netizens rose to the height of national honor and humiliation, accusing Su Weide of being a "national sinner", which not only made China lose a gold medal that should not have been lost, but also allowed Japan to rise to the first place in the gold medal list.
Japan hugged each other and celebrated their victory after a thrilling victory over China in men's team gymnastics. (Reuters)
Netizens rushed to blame the athletes, which had happened in China in the past. In the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Liu Xiang, who had the halo of the Athens Olympic 110-meter hurdles champion on his head, withdrew due to injury at the home stadium in Beijing and was pointed out by Qianfu; Four years later in London, Liu Xiang tripped over the first hurdle in the heats and jumped to the finish line on one leg. Liu Xiang has changed from a national idol to "Liu Ranran", some people scolded him for being a "coward", some people accused him of putting on a show, fake games, and some people blamed him for disgrace to the country.
I thought that with the maturity of the Chinese audience and the rise of national self-confidence, the thinking of "gold medal theory" has been gradually shaken off, but I did not expect that at the Paris Olympics, the first wave of Chinese public opinion returned to the gold medal issue.
Since China won the gold medal in the Olympic Games for the first time in 1984, the Chinese people have always had a strong obsession with the Olympic gold medal.
The number of gold medals has always been the key goal pursued by the Chinese delegation, which is not only regarded as an indicator to evaluate the overall level of national competitive sports, but also regarded as a manifestation of comprehensive national strength, a national honor, and a national integrity. In other words, the significance of the Olympic gold medal in China goes far beyond the sport itself. Especially in the era of China's rise, the competition for the top of the gold medal table with traditional sports powers such as United States and Russia is seen by many as a sign that China has caught up with and surpassed world powers.
At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, China trained gold-winning athletes with national strength, and surpassed United States for the first time in the gold medal table for the first time with its home advantage, which made many Chinese people deeply proud at the time. Later, at the 2012 London Olympics, the 2016 Rio Olympics, and the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, although they did not reach the top of the gold medal table, China ranked in the top three.
In the past few Olympic Games, some Chinese "post-95" and "post-00" athletes have emerged on the field, they not only show a high level of competition, but also reveal frankness, self-confidence and publicity on and off the field, such as "Flood Girl" Fu Yuanhui and "Bixin" shooter Yang Qian, all of whom have got rid of the rigid image of athletes in the system. In the face of the Western media's difficulties around doping and unfair high-density pre-competition testing, Chinese swimmer Zhang Yufei also faced it maturely, not complaining about too many drug tests, but only said that he was worried that foreign athletes would look at themselves with colored glasses.
Chinese media coverage of the Olympics is no longer limited to the results of the events and the stories of athletes winning glory for the country, but magnifying the personalities of athletes so that the public can see their true temperament like ordinary people. After the failure of the gymnastics men's team detonated the storm of public opinion, official media such as People's Daily Online and Xinhua News Agency also issued articles one after another, emphasizing that "the gold medal is desired, but not only the gold medal", and "the gymnastics men's team is not the responsibility of one person to lose the gold medal", trying to guide public opinion to abandon the blind worship of the gold medal.
It is hoped that the storm of public opinion surrounding Su Weide will subside as soon as possible, respect the objective law that victory and defeat are common things in soldiers, and treat defeat in a mature and tolerant manner is the embodiment of a society's real progress.