Jun 2nd, 2008
An article in yesterday’s New York Times about the Chinese quest for gold at the Beijing Olympics game was a great read. The country’s drive to dominate the medal count at the ‘08 games will probably succeed, just like some other massive, nationwide efforts that the country has undertaken. The 119 project is the sports equivalent of the Three-Gorges Dam. To wit:
China has spent millions — perhaps billions — on personnel and infrastructure to accelerate growth in medal-rich sports in which it has had little success.
Americans (and probably other countries who fear that the Chinese will end up at, or near, the top of the medal count in August) will criticize the Chinese effort from various angles. Some will call the Chinese athletes automatons without spirit, slaves to the system, not “true” athletes for whatever reason, and so on. Some are already leveling charges that the Chinese are doping:
Mike Teti, the coach of the United States men’s rowing team, said, “We know they are cheating, but there’s nothing we can do about it.”
That is a very bold statement. Wow. What does Teti know that the rest of the world doesn’t, and why doesn’t he come forward with details to back up that allegation? If he has some evidence of cheating by the Chinese, he should present it. Otherwise, he is only looks combatitive and defensive - like’s he’s preemptively building a case to explain U.S. losses to the Chinese teams in Beijing. (For the record, I think the Chinese will do well in the sculling events, but not as well in sweep events.)
Whatever happens at this point, you can bet that the Chinese are not going to welcome Teti, nor the American rowing contingent, very warmly.
