London Summer Olympics 2012

s002wjh said:

there is difference between hardship and abuse. for the same reason many victim didn't report the abuse, afraid or shame etc etc. the 1st pic no matter how you look at it, is not hardship but abuse.

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vesicles said:

You guys heard about "the cycling scandal". The Chinese team won the Gold but was later DQed and had to settle for a silver. Their coach, a French, complained that the Chinese were not treated equally at the Olympics. The officials who handed out the DQ would not even look at the slow-mo when the coach asked. They said they didn't have time to do it. The athletes train their whole life for this moment. Yet the officials would not spend a minute to look at the play-back... Talking about double standard...

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vesicles said:

You guys heard about "the cycling scandal". The Chinese team won the Gold but was later DQed and had to settle for a silver. Their coach, a French, complained that the Chinese were not treated equally at the Olympics. The officials who handed out the DQ would not even look at the slow-mo when the coach asked. They said they didn't have time to do it. The athletes train their whole life for this moment. Yet the officials would not spend a minute to look at the play-back... Talking about double standard...

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North Korea's Olympic athletes are thrilling their countrymen with surprising success in winning medals and they are attributing their success to their Dear Leader Kim Jong Un.
But others, including former North Korean athletes who have defected, suggest the success of the country's small contingent of athletes at the games may be the result of a policy of training them from a very young age at specialized schools, backed up by rewards like cars and refrigerators for winners and the threat of labor camps for losers.
North Korea ranks 14th in the overall medal count, but fifth in terms of the number of gold medals with four.
The country won two golds in men's weightlifting, one in women's weightlifting and one in women's judo. It also captured a bronze medal in women's weightlifting.
The communist nation has 56 athletes competing in 11 sports. Its hopes for additional medals lie in boxing, wrestling, diving, table tennis, judo, and archery. The best Olympic result in the past was four gold medals and five bronzes in Barcelona 1992.
Joyful residents in North Korea gather to watch the games on huge outdoor screens and public places with television connection.
"After witnessing the gold medal at the Olympics, my heart is unutterably happy and my pride (in our nation) is growing," an unidentified woman said on state television news.
That pride is exactly what the country's new 28 year-old leader Kim Jong Un is looking for. He has taken control of the impoverished nation of 25 million after his father Kim Jong Il passed away last December. Decades of famine have left many North Koreans bitter and analysts say this Olympic Games' fever is a perfect opportunity to generate loyalty and devotion among his subjects.
Gold medalist Kim Un-Guk, who set an Olympic record in 62-kilogram weightlifting, dutifully attributed his triumph to their leader Kim Jong Un.
"I won first place because the shining Supreme Commander Kim Jong Un gave me power and courage," he told reporters in London.
An Kum-Ae, who won her gold in the women's judo 52-kilogram division, said, "I cannot be any happier than right now for I can give my gold medal to our great leader, Kim Jong Un."
Woo-Young Lee, a professor at University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, says, "Athletes in North Korean society are revered as elites and they are managed, trained, and supported on a national level."
Hand-picked by the Communist Party's Sports Committee, the athletes are trained at very young ages and registered at specialized schools which provide "daily meals and spending money at times," said Gu-Kyeong Bang, a defector living in South Korea.
Secret to North Korea's Olympic Success
Bang was a student athlete in Taewondo in the North. Training involved four hours of "ideological education" per week aimed at cultivating loyalty to the leader.
"They play with a different mind set," said another North Korean defector to the South, Kim Yo-Han. "An absolute loyalty towards the country and the leader is the core foundation of the North Korean athletes' sportsmanship."
Kim's father was a soccer coach and mother was a rhythmic gymnastics coach in the North.
Upon returning home, gold medal athletes like Kim Un-Guk and An Gum-Ae would be rewarded with handsome prize money, an apartment, a car, and additional perks like refrigerators and television sets.
But most of all, they will be rewarded with a huge jump in social status with the title of "hero" or "people's athlete."
But poor performances, especially losing to their archenemy nations like the United States or South Korea, have consequences. Rumors of athletes being sent directly to labor camps upon arriving home are not confirmed, but it is a common procedure to open "review meetings" after the sports events in which participants "assess" their own and each other's games, said Kim Yo-Han.
If during that process the person is determined "disloyal" to their Dear Leader, the athlete is likely to be expelled from the sports organization and at times sent to labor camps.

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vesicles said:

There is definitive evidence that torture does not improve results. In fact, torture affects performance of athletes negatively. So the fact that China is improving steadily suggests that they don't abuse their athletes. Also, China hires many many foreign coaching staff to improve many of its sports simply because they want to learn the modern method of training. Much of the improvement comes from this modernization of training techniques, nutrition intake, etc. Look at swimming, cycling, etc, all of which have foreign coaches. Since much of China's improvement in sports came after China opened up to the world and introduced modern methods of training, are you implying that the foreign coaches are the ones who introduced Chinese to torture and abuse?

On the other hand, China's coaches also go abroad to provide coaching to other nations' athletes, like gymnastics, table tennis, badminton, diving, etc. You can see many Chinese coaches on foreign teams, like diving and gymnastics. The American synchronized diving team who won the silver medal has Chinese coaches. The American gymnastics team also has Chinese coaches. The coach of the lady who won the women all-around Gold is Chinese, Liang Chow. He also coached Shawn Johnson who won gold and silver medals in Beijing 2008. As you can see, these Chinese coaches are equally successful in training Western athletes. If Chinese coaches rely on torture and abuse to train their athletes, does that imply these American athletes are also abused? Has there been any suggestion that Chinese coaches abuse their athletes while training abroad? Any lawsuit?

All the speculations on abuse is simply excuses the Western teams are giving to explain why they can't compete with the Chinese. The root of the problem is still discrimination: the Western media cannot accept the fact that Chinese can be as good as they are. To them, Chinese must have played unfair. The truth is Chinese ARE as good as anyone, if not better simply because of the large population base. It's much easier to find all kinds of talent if you have 1.5 billion to choose from. Combined with modern training and proper nutrition, these athletes WILL thrive. I do not doubt that several Olympics from now, China WILL dominate, just like how China dominates the Para-olympics.

About the photo, where was the photo taken? Was this in the middle of an actual training, or a clip in a fictional movie. Might this be a fake? Can you confirm the source?

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Quickie said:

Also, when was the picture taken? 30 years old ago? If that's the case, it's no longer relevant to current time.

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