- Friday, April 19, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE People’s Republic of China continued to bag medals, especially the gold, at the ongoing Tokyo Olympics and with their haul having already surpassed that in Rio five years ago, there is a lot for the country to take pride about.
The country’s belligerent media has not let this opportunity go to take a dig at the country’s western foes. China has faced flak from the rest of the world in the current times over the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. Its already disturbed relationship with the United States has particularly taken a hit in the wake of the pandemic that has plagued the superpower. The tussle between China and the US has brought back the memory of the Cold War when the US and the erstwhile Soviet Union had locked their horns and even sporting events like the Olympics were affected by the rivalry.
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In 2020, the showdown is between China and the US and the intense contest for the top position in the medals’ tally has made the rivalry evident. At the time of writing this report, China have the most golds – 32 – but the US (22 golds) have made it up in the other metals to reach a haul of 68 medals, the same as China.
China’s state-owned Global Times has not wasted the opportunity to take a dig at the West over the country’s medal haul in Tokyo.
“The achievements the Chinese athletes have made so far burned the eyes of some Western media, which portrayed China as a “sports machine” that does everything it can to get gold medals. Analysts called such mentality “sour grapes”, and noted that as China’s national strength continues to grow, the country began to shine in so many areas, and has long passed the era of the attitude that “only the championship counts”,” it said in a report.
With six days more to go, China are well on course to improve their Rio medals’ tally of 70, which was 51 less than the top-ranked US’s tally of 121.
China had always aimed to emerge a sporting superpower to add clout to its overall weight in the international arena. According to a report on China’s obsession with Olympic gold medals in The New York Times that came out on July 29, the country’s obsession with the top metal “is tied up in the very founding in 1949 of the People’s Republic of China, which was seen as a revolutionary force that would reverse centuries of decay and defeat by foreign powers”.
It also said the first essay that Chairman Mao Zedong, the leader of China’s communist revolution, was about the zeal of a country which was written off as “the sick man of Asia” to develop its muscle. Nothing would have been better than a platform like the Olympic Games.
In 1988, China won only six golds at the Seoul Olympics. In 2008, it hosted the Games and surpassed the US to bag the most number of golds – 48.
For China, gold-medalism is another name for national passion.
