Tang Dynasty Ladies, Opening Ceremony, Aug. 8, 2008
China's splendid performances and spectacular shows along with controversies about alleged underaged gymnasts and a lip-synching young singer at the Beijing Olympics have attracted worldwide attention. Although the United States won the most medals (36 gold, 38 silver and 36 bronze for a total of 110), the Chinese team had the most gold medals (51) to go along with 21 silver medals and 28 bronze medals.
Yang Wei (杨威), Gold Medalist in Men's All Around Gymnastics
Some Western commentators see the sports rivalry between China and the U.S. as "a competition between systems, between state-sponsored athletes and individualists, East and West, democracy and the single-party state." Michael Allen Gillespie of Duke University points out that in fact Americans brought home more gold medals than Chinese citizens. This is because in official counts a team medal is counted the same as an individual medal, whereas in the actual awarding of the medals, all 12 members of the U.S. basketball team, for example, get one gold medal each, while the Chinese winner of the men's table tennis singles gets just one medal. Because Americans do better in team sports such as basketball than the Chinese, the Americans actually hauled in more medals: by Gillespie's count, "Americans took home 118 gold medals, 99 silver medals and 76 bronze medals, while the Chinese took home 76 gold, 35 silver and 38 bronze medals. That is 293 total medals for the USA to 149 for China." For Gillespie America's superiority in team sports over China is no accident:
Voluntary cooperation has always been a hallmark of the American system, suffusing the lives of children and adults alike, an outstanding factor in our playrooms and in our boardrooms.
China, by contrast, has always put much less emphasis on voluntary cooperation than on hierarchical control and the obligation of those below to take directions from those above. Such discipline and obedience can produce individuals who become superb at repeating individual tasks, as in the diving competitions where the Chinese were outstanding, but it cannot produce the creativity and voluntary cooperation necessary to the successful operation of a team.
Dancers at Closing Ceremony, Aug. 24, 2008
Interestingly, many Chinese were not convinced that China's record number of Olympic medals mean that China is a great sports power. In an online poll on the portal 163.com on the question "Is China a great power in sports?", 4730 respondents said yes while 17,030 chose no. The naysayers pointed out that China is still weak in the most popular sports in the world, including basketball, soccer, and track and field. Moreover, many of the sports that China won gold medals are totally irrelevant to the daily lives of the people: for example, few people in China actually lift weights or row boats. Most importantly, some of the naysayers argued that "the number of gold medals implies a great investment on professional athletes training, but don’t necessarily mean adequate support for populace health and sports, namely enough stadiums, spaces, infrastructures built for common people."
Still, the shortcomings of the Chinese sports system notwithstanding, most people would argue that the Beijing Olympics was a great success for the host country and set a very high bar for future Olympics host cities beginning with London.
The Paralympics, which was held at Beijing following the Olympics from September 6 to 17, also commanded considerable global attention. The Paralympics had its origins as a program to rehabilitate British war veterans with spinal injuries, founded by neurologist Sir Ludwig Guttman in 1948. What began as sports competitions among patients of several hospitals coinciding with the London Olympics of 1948 evolved into the modern Parallel Olympics or Paralympics over time. The first Paralympics took place in Rome which was hosting the Olympics in 1960: Sir Ludwig Guttman brought 400 athletes in wheelchairs to compete there. The movement took a giant leap forward when South Korea, hosts of the Olympic Games in 1988, decided to hold a truly parallel Paralympics "staged on the same scale and lines as the Olympics." At the 2004 Athens Paralympics, a record 134 nations competed. China topped the tables for the first time, winning 63 gold medals, 46 silver medals and 32 bronze medals for a total of 141 medals.
Fireworks at the Opening Ceremony, Sept. 6,2008
The number of countries participating at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics was the largest ever: 12 more than at the Athens Paralympics. At the opening ceremony, "6,000 performers and 4,000 disabled athletes from 148 countries took part in [a three-hour spectacular show] in front of 91,000 ecstatic spectators."
Qi Shun (祁顺) of China Wins the Marathon T12 Race
China's performances at the Paralympics were even more successful than in the Olympics. 322 Chinese athletes competed in all 20 sports. China won a total of 211 medals (89 gold, 70 silver, 52 bronze), more than double the total medals won by runner-up Great Britain (102), with the United States just behind with 99 medals.
Thousand-handed Guanyin, Closing Ceremony, Paralympic Games, Sept. 17, 2008
Receiving little to no attention in the Western media is the 1st World Mind Sports Games (第一届世界智力运动会), also held in Beijing, from October 3 to October 18 of 2008. The International Mind Sports Association (IMSA), founded in 2005, includes 4 international federations among its members: World Chess Federation (FIDE), World Bridge Federation (WBF), World Draughts Federation (FMJD) and International Go Federation (IGF). According to IMSA's Web site, "The goal of IMSA was to gather different mind sports federations to pursue common aims and interests, to organize the World Mind Sport Games under the aegis of the General Association of International Sport Federations and further realize the inclusion of mind sports in the Olympic movement. In particular, the organization's long-term plans include running World Mind Sports Games by analogy with Olympics, which will be held in Olympic host cities shortly after Winter or Summer Games." The Beijing World Mind Sports Games is thus conceived as the inaugural event in the series.
According to World Bridge Federation President José Damiani, who is one of the signatories of the the founding declaration of IMSA, "We clearly consider ourselves a sport ... Our events are no different from physical sports. They are all sports." While the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recognizes the international bridge and chess federations, none of the mind sports are accepted as Olympic events. Nonetheless, IMSA hopes that eventually IOC can be persuaded to do so. Georgios Makropoulos, vice president of the World Chess Federation (FIDE) and another signatory of the founding declaration of IMSA, stated: "We hope that this event in Beijing will be so important and so big that the IOC will understand that they need us."
In fact, since the 1990s FIDE has been lobbying to gain the approval of chess as an Olympic event. Towards that goal drug tests were introduced in international chess tournaments in 2001, even though the World Anti-Doping Agency classifies chess as a "low risk sport," and it is highly unlikely that chess players can gain an edge by doping. The reason is that if chess were to become an Olympic event, it must submit to the anti-doping rules of the IOC. For the same reason the World Bridge Federation has also signed up to the World Anti-Doping Code, and at the 1st World Mind Sports Games contestants were subject to doping checks.
The 1st World Mind Sports Games featured five mind sports competitions: Bridge, Chess, Go, Draughts, and Xiangqi (Chinese Chess). 143 countries/regions and 2,763 competitors participated [ch]. The official logo "is a truelove knot which represents affinity, friendship, solidarity, communication, good luck as well as the traditional elements of China," with each sport represented by a color.
According to Xiao Min (晓敏), Assistant to the Head of the General Administration of Sport of China (国家体育总局), the World Mind Sports Games would fully actualize the theme of "harmonious development" (和谐发展) [ch] -- the harmonious development of mass sports and competitive sports, of physical sports and mind sports, and of Olympic events and non-Olympic events.
Peformance at the World Mind Sports Games' Opening Ceremony
The 1st World Mind Sports Games was again a great success for the Chinese team in total medal count, marking the third successive world sporting event that China has both hosted and finished on top. China ranked first with 12 gold medals, 8 silver medals and 6 bronze medals. Runner-up Russia had 4 gold medals, 1 silver medal and 3 bronze medals. South Korea and Ukraine, which tied for third place, each won 2 gold medals, 4 silver medals, and 3 bronze medals. The United States ranked no. 11, with just 1 gold medal and 1 bronze medal.
Go Player Gu Li (古力) Taking Oath as Representative of All Competitors at the Opening Ceremony, Oct. 3, 2008
The Chinese may have an advantage in Xiangqi, the Chinese version of chess, and indeed they won five gold medals and three silver medals in that category (Vietnam won one silver medal and two bronze medals, while Hong Kong took two bronze medals, and Australia was runner-up in the women's team competition). However, even if one discounts those medals in Xiangqi, the Chinese team is still comfortably ahead of second-ranked Russia in total medal count.
Zhao Ruquan (赵汝权) of Hong Kong, Bronze Medalist in the Men's Rapid Xiangqi Event, Playing against Ji Zhongqi (纪中启) of the U.S.
Where the Chinese fell flat on is draughts, the only category that they failed to win any medals. This category was dominated by competitors from countries that had been part of the Soviet Union who took 12 of 15 medals, with Russia winning two golds, one silver and one bronze. The United States' only gold medal at the World Mind Sports Games was won by Moscow-born Alex Moiseyev in Checkers (Mixed).
Bridge and chess are probably the two mind sports that have the broadest geographical distribution of players and competitors, and this is reflected in the diverse origins of medal winners in both categories. Bridge was the most successful category for Norway, accounting for five medals out of a total tally of six that Norwegians won at the 1st World Mind Sports Games, and also for Turkey, which won two gold medals, the only medals the Turks won at the Games. As for host China, the Chinese won one silver and two bronze medals in bridge.
Bu Xiangzhi of China, Gold Medalist in the Men's Individual Rapid Chess Event
Countries that had been part of the Soviet Union not unexpectedly did well in chess events, but their performances were nowhere as dominating as in draughts. Ukraine won 1 gold, 4 silver and 2 bronze medals, which accounted for all but 2 of its overall medals. Russia managed 2 golds and 1 bronze. China was even more successful than Ukraine, winning 4 golds, 3 silvers and 2 bronzes. Chinese grandmaster Bu Xiangzhi (卜祥志) was the gold medalist in the men's individual rapid event. Teen phenom Hou Yifan (侯逸凡), who is the world's youngest grandmaster of chess at age 14 and whom I have profiled on this blog, won the bronze medal in the women's individual blitz. That event was won by Russia's Alexandra Kosteniuk, who defeated Hou at the finals match of the Women's World Chess Championship earlier this year. Hou Yifan also won the gold medal in the mixed pairs rapid event (with Ni Hua (倪华) as her partner). In addition, as team member she won the silver medal in the women's teams blitz event, and the gold medal in the women's teams rapid event.
Hou Yifan of China, Winner of Four Medals in Women's Chess Events
Alexandra Kosteniuk of Russia, Winner of the Women's Individual Blitz Chess Event
From the perspective of the East Asian countries, Go (weiqi 围棋 in Chinese) is probably the most prestigious of the mind sports. Go is a board game that is deceptively simple in terms of its rules, and yet profound in its strategic possibilities. Not surprisingly, all the medals were won by East Asian competitors. Although the host team garnered a respectable 5 out of 18 total medals (3 golds, 1 silver and 1 bronze), it was overshadowed by the South Korean team that won 2 golds,4 silvers and 3 bronzes (which accounted for all the medals won by South Korea at this event). Japan won bronze medals in both men's team and women's team events. Taiwan (which again has to compete under the name of Chinese Taipei at the insistence of the People's Republic of China) won its only medal: a silver in the pair Go event.
China's Gold-Medal Winning Women's Go Team against Great Britain
The Taiwan team was composed of Chou Chun-Hsun (周俊勳) [ch] and Hsieh Yi-Min (謝依旻) [ch]. 28-year old Chou Chun-Hsun, the finest professional Go player in Taiwan, was the winner of the LG Cup in 2007. Born in 1989, Hsieh Yi-Min was a Go prodigy who moved to Japan to enter a Go Academy at age 12 and became the youngest female to attain a professional rank (dan 段) at age 14 in Japan. She has already won 3 of the top 4 women's Go competitions in Japan by age 19. In the finals of the pair Go event, however, this formidable team was defeated by the China team of Huang Yizhong (黄奕中) and Fan Weijing (范蔚菁). Although both are first-class players, neither have achieved the very top ranks in Go. However, they have a personal chemistry as a team [ch], able to reach tacit agreement and tolerate the mistakes of the other.
Hsieh Yi-Min & Chou Chun-Hsun Accepting Their Silver Medals in the Pair Go Event, with the Chinese Taipei Flag Behind Them
But will the Beijing World Mind Sports Games be the first of a series that will follow the Summer or Winter Olympics and the Paralympics in the same host city? The question remains open. At the press conference concluding the event on October 18, 2008 [ch], World Bridge Federation President José Damiani praised the preparation and the implementation of the Games by the Chinese host and the achievements of the Games. He pointed out that even though mind sports cannot attract as big an audience as the Olympics or the World Cup Soccer, the five mind sports featured at the 1st World Mind Sports Games are sports with the greatest number of direct participants. In his words, "There are approximately one billion people who directly participate in these five sports. This is the biggest difference for the World Mind Sports Games; it has the highest rate of participation." However, Damiani also revealed that the location of the next World Mind Sports Games has not been determined, and that several candidate host cities as alternatives to London has been lined up. "We hope that we can come to an agreement with IOC, and that the Mind Sports Games can be linked to the Olympics like the Paralympics. But at this point we have still not received a response from IOC."
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