It's the day after the Olympics and I'm still not fully recovered. Ow...
At least China matched their best non-hosted Olympic record of 38 gold. Let's hope the trend is to continue to improve and not a sudden fall down the medals table in Paris.
Now to return my attention back to the continued Messi-saga.
I hate professional sports.
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Nothing destroys the good-natured fun of shit talking your sports rivals than stupid media treating the shit talking seriously. And reading media getting full of themselves and failing to honestly assess the situation makes me want to bang my head.
For example, the situation with the medal rankings: China has been leading the gold medal count up until the last day in this iteration of the Olympics. However, realistically, the U.S. will probably shoot past China's numbers since Team USA has managed to get into finals of numerous events held on the last day, while events where China could obtain gold have already finished. Which means China has more or less maxed out their gold medal possibilities, with one last long shot at women's boxing, which is a very long shot. Anyone reasonable wouldn't count on it. Meanwhile, the U.S. is still the favorites for at least three or four events, with another one that's 50-50.
So, if we're honestly assessing the situation, Team USA will most likely top the gold medal chart once the last events wrap up. However, unlike previous iterations where the U.S.'s golds completely overshadow everyone else, this year, the gap will only be 1 or 2 apart.
We (the Chinese) should be happy for the improved results. Why is it necessary to pretend that China is going to be able to take the #1 position? If China somehow remains #1 in gold medal ranking at the end of the day, of course I'll be pleasantly surprised. But taking #2 while being only a few medals behind the U.S. is still an epic improvement over the usual 10+ gold difference.
Given the difference in GDP and comprehensive national power of the two nations, it's nonsense to think that China "ought" to gain more gold medals than the U.S. If it happens, it's because we got lucky, not because our comprehensive athletic capabilities have exceeded the U.S. Surely this is obvious?
Shit talking is for fans who are bantering. It's fucking annoying seeing it in the media. And that goes for the United States' media, too. I don't need to see you dehumanizing Chinese athletes either. Especially when you pretend to be concerned about anti-Asian hate. Fuck off.
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We've matched Sydney 2000 gold count! W00t! Go go Team China!
Women's table tennis continues to prove that China's dominance over the sport is far from over. Tough luck, Japan. You've still got a ways to go.
(Context: Ito Mima was reported saying she will end China's dominance over table tennis when she was 16. Now that she's 20 and still losing to Chinese athletes, one of whom is only 18 years old, well, I guess we know how well that went. This is why you don't tell the media your ambitions, child. You will only spur your rivals to improve further.)
Also, fuck you England, Chinese diving dominance continues. Just because you managed to pry one gold from us doesn't make you a diving giant.
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IOC: Gesture supporting intersectionality of trans, black, and women athletes? Not a political statement.
Also IOC: Portrait of the country's founding father? POLITICAL STATEMENT! EXPLAIN YOURSELVES!
Context:
American athlete makes an X gesture when picking up her medal, showing her support for the trans-black-women's rights and the IOC, who had banned political statements, are all "this is fine, this isn't political". But when Chinese athletes wear a small portrait of Mao (who founded the PRC BTW), suddenly, this is TOO POLITICAL. Because patriotism is too political now, but trans-black-women's rights isn't a political statement.
Fuck off.
You know what this is? Anti-Asian racism. You're picking on the Asian countries because you're fucking racists.
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First, why is windsurfing a sailing competition?
Second, since when did China start winning this? (Beijing Olympics, 2008. But I thought that was fluke because...let's face it, surfing in all forms is not a popular sport in a mostly land-based country with only small stretches of vacation-friendly beach fronts.)
Also, a quick look at China's Olympic gold medal streak since 2008 was very, very depressing:
2008 - 51🥇
2012 - 38🥇
2016 - 26🥇
...
That's kind of terrible. Either there's been a directive to start focusing attention elsewhere that isn't sports or something has gone horribly wrong. I suspect the leadership in China is reducing (financial) focus on sports to spend on other things, causing Team China to basically lose their Olympic standing.
(Or Chinese parents are saying "fuck professional sports" collectively because pro sports is difficult and unrewarding for 95% of the athletes. Much safer to get a white collar desk job.)
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So, all my blathering about doubles is meaningless because men's and women's doubles are no longer a thing! Wow, I have not been keeping up with table tennis development.
Instead of doubles, it's now a team event, which means three out of five athletes need to win their singles match. Hm...I can't tell if this favors or disadvantages China.
In other Olympic news, China won two more swimming golds! So...Tokyo's shitty Olympic Village housing is basically improving China's chances at some of their weaker sports, because it's fucking with the usual dominance by other nations.
Eh, you win some, you lose some, I guess.
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Ha! Chinese table tennis team have adapted to the tiny courts. And now they are going to take back the crown!
Of course, there's still men's and women's doubles, and that's still a bit of an unknown. Doubles will probably get affected more by the tiny court size than singles games, since there's a lot of running behind each other in the process. We'll see how it goes.
For now, I'm happy China have once again taken home the gold and silver in singles table tennis.
Edit: Wait, table tennis no longer has men's and women's doubles! They've been replaced by team matches! What? 😲
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For some reason no one is broadcasting the badminton games, so I can only track them through news reports, which is how I happened upon badminton kerfluffle: the Chinese badminton team was assigned 8 beds for 9 athletes at the Olympic village, resulting in one person having to sleep on the ground.
WTF Japan? WTF is this treatment? Are you actively trying to sabotage Team China? I'll chalk the rest (failed desalination for sculls, undersized table tennis courts, non-working A/Cs) up to incompetence, but getting the number of beds correct surely cannot be this fucking hard.
(China's not even that dominant in badminton, WTF?!)
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I was not following the table tennis news, but apparently there's been some serious kerfluffle over the Tokyo Olympic's table tennis court size.
According to the head coach of the Chinese table tennis team, the athletes complained about the small size of the courts during warm-ups last week (July 21st). The coach, Liu Guoliang, then measured the courts and confirmed that it is indeed smaller than regulation. Table tennis courts use the "ratio" system (number of dividing boards used to encircle the court), with non-finals games played on 7x14 courts and finals played on 8x16 court size. The measurement for the Tokyo Olympic table tennis courts were 6x11.
The smaller court size means that Chinese athletes cannot accelerate at their usual pace safely due to the lack of space. This heavily impacts Chinese table tennis tactics, as one of their strong points is using the full width and depth of the court through their higher acceleration. This especially affects the men's team's performance due to the high reliance on this acceleration in their strategies. This acceleration is the meta which allowed Chinese table tennis athletes to dominate over foreign athletes, as this strategy has yet to be widely adopted by other countries.
Liu has lodged an official complaint, but it was too late to change the venue size.
As I have seen, the male Chinese table tennis athlete had played poorly through out the mix doubles tournament, as Liu said he would be the most impacted.
Remember, all of this was complained about five days ago. Well before the competition began.
So, that does help explain a bit more about why the performance was so terrible.
And that reminds me that the crew team complained about the water for sculls (rowing) was not properly desalinated, which changed the friction coefficient and buoyancy on their tiny boats. This complaint was lodged by multiple teams, as sculls teams practice and compete in fresh water.
Just another example of the arena being very poorly regulated in this Olympics.
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Checked out Weibo (Chinese version of Twitter) and it's filled with people suffering from insomnia after the terrible day of losses left and right, with the loss of mixed doubles in table tennis capping everything off as the shittiest loss for the day.
The poor athletes are obviously suffering the most, especially since they desperately wanted to win this, as this was the first time mixed doubles entered the Olympics and they're nearing the end of their competitive career. This was their only chance at getting the mixed doubles Olympic gold. They'll have to settle for silver.
Just you wait, Japan. In three years, we're coming back for that crown and you'll eat dirt. (ﾉಥ益ಥ)ﾉ
Meanwhile, misery loves company, and I'm feeling better after reading how everyone is having a rough time dealing with the loss.
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