WSJ has written about the new sensation: Miss Fu Yuanhui, a backstroker, calling her the Primordial Girl. NYT here.
She seems to speak a new kind of language, perhaps her mind, that by winning a bronze-medal @ Rio’s 100m Backstroke (58.95), she’s satisfied, because she did her best “洪荒之力”, which WSJ translates as primordial (原始). I can’t help but to love her refreshing and original candor.
The same WSJ article also mentioned medal count. China took the lead in gold only in 2008 in Beijing 51 while US only garnered a pitiful 36. However China didn’t keep up the gold in London (38 while US got 46) and is expected to take even less in Rio 里约热内卢, about 30-36. I’m wondering what’s going on, with such drastic drop? On top of this, Chinese population is 4x+ more than United States’ (1.357 billion vs 318.9 million).
What has gone wrong with China? They’ve a powerful state/provincial (and on down) machines that churn out elite athletes day in and day out. The kids are trained starting at very young age, all be taken care of and paid for …
I also noticed that the Chinese swimmers, in general, swim far less events with one stroke than the American counter parts. for example, Ning Zetao sticks to free style 50 and 100 only (he’s a disastrous results @ Rio). Michael Phelp is winning medleys and Katie Ledecky is winning 100m to 1500m races.
According to Wiki, USA has, as of today, won 2681 (summer 2399+ winter 282) while China 526 (473+53).
华尔街日报也不甘落后，报道了洪荒傅园慧 (为什么不是付？) 小姑娘的直率实在是可爱，清新原创. 同文也提到了金牌的数量：中国只在北京那届赢了最多51 (美国36). 但是下一届在伦敦只拿了38枚 （美国46）预言这次在里约大概只能赢 30-36面. 这是我一直不解的问题：为什么中国人口比美国多四倍多，而且国家级省级 … 体校多如牛毛 (全包)，怎么就训练不出多些好的运动员？另外，中国的游泳运动员，一般只游一种 (长/短 – 比如宁泽涛只游短程 50 和100m)，一个姿势. Phelp 赢混合泳 Ledecky 赢 从100米到1,500米. … 美国很多职业运动员都是从贫困里走出来的. 不是批评只是好奇.
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