London Summer Olympics 2012

Gold# 13, Men's 69-kg weightlfting, Lin Qingfeng

Another thought on Ye Shiwen:

In this day of global communication, how is it that reuters and other various english language media are still mistranslating Chinese?

They say that Ye is nicknamed "young general". Google 叶诗文, and you'll find out that her nickname is 小叶子 (little leaf). How the hell did they get "young general" from that?

Another thing, when quoting Chinese officials, they wrote that Ye was a "genius". It's supposed to be a translation of the Chinese term 天才. Genius is very awkward when applied to athletes. Genius refers to intellect. The word they should have used is "prodigy".

solarz said:

Another thought on Ye Shiwen:

In this day of global communication, how is it that reuters and other various english language media are still mistranslating Chinese?

They say that Ye is nicknamed "young general". Google 叶诗文, and you'll find out that her nickname is 小叶子 (little leaf). How the hell did they get "young general" from that?

Another thing, when quoting Chinese officials, they wrote that Ye was a "genius". It's supposed to be a translation of the Chinese term 天才. Genius is very awkward when applied to athletes. Genius refers to intellect. The word they should have used is "prodigy".

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Let's just hope Ye don't read English news media. All this negativity....no good.

I don't think Ye is being shielded from it since the media is asking questions directly to her. I'm watching news reports and none of the journalists even mention that Ye passed tests. They're intentionally keeping that information to convey there's a conspiracy as if no one is investigating after all these accusations. The only time it maybe even mentioned is when someone they interview states it. One of the reasons for suspicion on Ye was that she came out of nowhere. It can't be in the swimming world because she trains in Australia and has Western coaches working with her. So they're talking about in general. Like they profile foreign athletes like they do their own? You can go back to I believe was the Atlanta games where there was an African-American swimmer that couldn't make the US team so he went to swim for a Central American country and he ended up winning a gold medal beating the favored US team that excluded him. There were no questions about him because they know what would happen afterwards. There's a scandal in there in itself about how did this guy win a gold medal yet couldn't make the team at home where he had to go to swim for another country. Frankly China doesn't know how to turn it where critics think twice before opening their mouths like they didn't with this guy because we know the center of suspicion is born from the elitist mentality in sports and not from evidence of cheating.

t2contra said:

US gymnastics success owes in part to their coach Liang Chow, who came from China.

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That would be a tremendous help on this occassion, but then you are only as good with what you got to work worth.

bladerunner said:

That would be a tremendous help on this occassion, but then you are only as good with what you got to work worth.

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That "would" should be replaced by "was" as the American Olympic team chose to hire her for a reason. It's just the same as the Chinese resorting to the help of former Australian coaches for her swimming team.

No nation excels at every single discipline.

Quickie said:

"Following the recent comments reported in the media, FINA would like to clearly state that there is no factual basis to support this kind of insinuations related to the performances of the Chinese swimmer, Shiwen Ye. This athlete has fulfilled all of the FINA Doping Control obligations, having been tested on four occasions in the last twelve months, including twice before the Chinese Olympic Trials in 2012," said FINA on its official web.[/B]

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Chuckle Leonard in his interview to the media, inferred that the cheats are a step ahead of the catchers. I notice there was no attempt by FINA to rebute this allegation.
As I recall I dont think FINA were aware dopining or something like that was going on, until some ex athelete "spilled the beans"
Leaving Shewin aside , at the end of the day we have to ask ourselves is FINA is as good at doing the job it claims to be.

cn_habs said:

That "would" should be replaced by "was" as the American Olympic team chose to hire her for a reason. It's just the same as the Chinese resorting to the help of former Australian coaches for her swimming team.

No nation excels at every single discipline.

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Thanks for the grammar correction.

As to using foreign coaches.I heard a American sportswriter suggest that as good as the Chinese basket ball players are, the game is essentially one involving expression and individualism. Chinese training methods stifled this in their team to the extent he could not see any significant improvement with them. So perhaps the Chinese should use a American coach.?

By the way, Rice was wearing one of those Speedo Polyurathene swimsuits when she lowered the record.That's why there werent any questions asked.

So funny to see Ye's doping allegations just hours after she won the medal. I though here in United States, it is all about innocent until proven guilty, but I guess Chinese people in the "free media" are all about guilty until proven innocent .

I just love those articles that first come out accuse her of doping, first they mention that China have been caught doping in the past, while totally didn't mention that US was caught doping as well. And also didn't mention that for the recent 3-4 Olympics Chinese players was clean.

Then they mention that some of her team members or couches was caught doping, thus guilty by association, but it never mention that should we also suspect all the people associated with US athletes caught doping as well, should they also be guilty with associations.

Oh and lastly they quote this "expert" base on his personal opinion like it was some kind of gospel, a sure proof that there is no way possible for her to be clean. I mean should we go take a look in the past, when a US athletes won something amazing and totally unexpected how long did it take for the media to splatter all over the place to say "Oh he might be DOPING".

And the media ate this up like a starving Ethiopian children chow down a thanksgiving turkey.

The double standard is unfuckingbeliveable, if I didn't know better, I would call this racism.

Volleyball: China move pays off for Harmotto
By Martyn Herman | Reuters – 1 hour 18 minutes ago.. .


LONDON (Reuters) - Fresh out of college, Christa Harmotto made the bold decision to continue her volleyball education halfway around the world in China and three years later it is paying handsome dividends.

On Wednesday, the 25-year-old middle blocker was part of the United States team that produced a powerful performance to beat China 3-0 and seal a quarter-final spot at the Olympics.

Harmotto's position on court brings her face to face with the full fury of the opposition spiker but more often than not she appeared to second guess the Chinese attack during an electrifying contest at the cavernous Earls Court.

It was no accident, the Penn State graduate said, explaining how she had learned a new style of volleyball while playing professionally in the city of Guangzhou in 2009.

"It was a different culture and a different style of game," Harmotto told Reuters.

"They play very fast so it was important for me in my block (and to help) the growth of the game and for me to see some different offenses before I joined the national team.

"I was under a great coach and surrounded by great players who demanded the best out of you. We were able to make plays that I could learn from and pick up on."

She was in good company as the Guangzhou team at the time contained several members of the Chinese women's team that won the Olympic gold medal in Athens in 2004.

Now playing in Modena, Italy, Harmotto said she has a healthy respect for Chinese volleyball and was not surprised by the incredible resilience they displayed in saving six match points before finally succumbing.

"Every time you step on the floor against China they definitely exploit some things that as far as our defense we are not used to, they have a fast offence, they hit off one foot, the setter does a great job disguising her sets," she said.

"It helped me a lot as a young player right out of college. They are technically sound. The former Olympians were in the team and it was fun to watch, they took the technical skills to a whole new level.

"They keep coming at you and it's fun to play them."

With three wins from three matches, the U.S. team are looking the most impressive of the 12 nations involved in the tournament, but Harmotto is not looking any further than their next Pool B preliminary match against Serbia on Friday.

"We're not even thinking about medals yet," she said.

(Reporting by Martyn Herman; editing by Ken Ferris)