Mark Pinkstone/Former Chief Information Officer of HK government
It was a nail-biting time to the end of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games as the world’s two greatest superpowers – China and the US – battled out who would top the ladder in the quest for gold medals. At the end of the day, the Americans equalled China with 40 gold medals.
However, the US secured a total of 126 medals among its near 600 Olympic team. China fielded only 388 contestants.
The rivalry between the two extended beyond the common bounds of politics and economics to now include sport.
And as it is with the previous two denominators, it was not a fair game. The US’s opening gambit to destabilize the Chinese team came with a planted story in the New York Times that a Chinese team of 23 swimmers had been tested positive in drug tests prior to the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games. Eleven of those tested positive were competing in the Paris Games. But all those tested positive were cleared by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) after accepting reports that the athletes concerned had unknowingly eaten contaminated meat.
Social and mainstream media, athletes and politicians were quick to pick up the hot piece of gossip and questioned WADA as to why it didn’t disqualify the athletes. But WADA, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Chinese anti-doping authority stuck to their guns that the trace contamination was not intentional.
However, the Chinese swimmers were undaunted by the controversary surrounding them and picked up 12 medals and another 8 for diving.
The nail biting started three days before the close when both China and the US were 33 golds each, with the US having the edge with a greater number of overall medals. Australia was third with 18 golds. China then moved forward securing another 5 golds to bring its tally to 39 while the US stood still at 33. Overnight the Americans bounced back securing another 4 golds to raise its tally to 38. On the eve of the finals the tallies were 39 for China and 38 for the US. China claimed one more and the cliff-hanger was women’s basketball match between France and the US. The US won the exciting game by one point, making it equal to China’s score.
One could only imagine the pep talks by the coaches in the Olympic Village on the night before the finals with both aiming to outdo the other. It’s all a matter of ‘face’.
As in any geopolitical rivalry it’s all about moving the goal post. Normally the Olympic winner is determined by the number of gold medals won. So even though China had the greater number of gold medals throughout the games, the US was declared the winner with the total number of medals won (126).
The size of the contingent also gives a national team the edge over its competitors by placing more athletes in an event, thus increasing a chance to gain one of the three medals.
With some 206 countries competing in the 2024 Olympics, the US had, by far, the largest number of 596 athletes vying for gold, silver and bronze medals. It was followed by the host country France with 573, Australia 460, Germany 427, Italy 403 and China 388.
Overall, the games were open and fair, save for some minor criticism by athletes about accommodation (hard cardboard beds) food (worms, which, incidentally, is a delicacy in Fujian city of Xiamen street stalls), and pollution in the River Seine.
Stars were born, among them Quan Hongchan the 17-year-old diving diva from Zhanjiang, Guangdong, who stole the show with her excitement gestures. She took home two gold medals for her performances. The most famed Chinese contestant was speed swimmer Pan Zhanle, the 20 year-old from Wenzhou, Zhejiang, who broke his own 100-meter freestyle world record and won two golds and one silver medal. And table tennis icon Sun Yingsha, 24, from Shijiazhuang, Hebei, whose selfie with mixed doubles runners-up, the Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea was flashed across the world.
Despite the plot to destabilize the Chinese team and its diminished size compared with its rivals, the Chinese athletes rose to the fore to show the world that sport can overcome all obstacles and foster friendship among friend and foe in the true Olympic spirit.
Mark Pinkstone
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