Purge exposes rotten underbelly of Chinese sport
- Source: Global Times
- [22:14 January 27 2010]
- Comments
Asked about the scandal by a reporter, Zhou, who helped China get 7 out of 8 gold medals with her strikingly young-looking diving team at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, retorted, "Which media organization do you work for?"
In a post-match interview at the 11th National Games, He Wenna, China's first trampoline Olympic champion, said that she knew who would win the f nals long ago. There was no follow-up investigation and He was later criticized at a GAS meeting for her words.
The same happened at the judo, basketball and football matches of the National Games.
More recently, in the run-up to 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games and Asian Para Games, members of the Guangzhou People's Congress Standing Committee complained about a lack of information from the organizing committee on the sources and destinations of the funds for the two Games.
It's reported that the Games cost 200 billion yuan ($29.28 billion) but no official figures have been released so far. Some worry that the lack of information on such a scale of government spending has already led to waste and embezzlement of taxpayers' money.
It's interesting to see how this heavy-handed investigation in football will play out, as the results might even shock those who started it.
Sport has long been regarded as a source of national pride in China. But when pride conflicts with laws and ethics and you hesitate, even for a moment, the battle against corruption is already lost.
The author is the editor of China Sports Review, editor@chinasportsreview.com
