Where is Peng Shuai? For a brief moment during the Winter Olympics last year I had an answer, of sorts, to that deeply troubling question. For there she was, suddenly and without warning, at the Big Air final, watching the Chinese‑American superstar Eileen Gu soar and spin through the Beijing sky to take gold. At first I wondered from my vantage point in the press stands whether it was really Peng. The presence of the International Olympic Committee president, Thomas Bach, and a swarm of photographers, answered that. Soon images…
Tag: Sport politics
Chinese football stars and officials held in Xi’s corruption crackdown
Sergio Agüero may be one of the greatest strikers of his generation, but he won an even rarer accolade in 2015, when he became the first – and last – Premier League footballer to take a selfie with Xi Jinping, China’s football-loving leader. The photo, taken at Manchester City’s stadium – with then prime minister David Cameron – comes from an era when Xi was fostering warm relations with the UK and pushing China to become a world football superpower by 2050, both ambitions that seem distant possibilities today. In…
The Kamila Valieva case shows yet again that the IOC is betraying teen athletes
A fish rots from the head. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is the head of the Olympic movement, and it is rotten to the core. Long ago, this vile organisation abandoned its stated principles of “excellence, friendship and respect” to embrace greed, corruption and abuse. For many, the enduring image of Bejing 2022 will not be one of Olympic glory, but the tragic and bizarre spectacle attending the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) and 15-year-old figure skater Kamila Valieva. Once again, the Russians got caught cheating: Valieva tested positive for a…
China bags Winter Games gold and a rap for ‘cynical ploy’ of Uyghur torchbearer
Glory on the track. Growing criticism off it. China ended day one of these Winter Olympics by celebrating a thrilling first gold medal, while also finding itself facing growing condemnation from human rights groups after selecting a Uyghur to light the Olympic flame. The small number of fans in the Capital Indoor Stadium because of Covid-19 regulations certainly made themselves heard as China’s mixed relay quartet held off Italy by the width of a blade in a dramatic short-track speedskating final. Afterwards, Wu Dajing, the country’s most famous active winter…