Sideline Story

Gains and misses from Chinese athletes at Paris 2024

Chinese athletes have put up consistent performances at the Paris Olympics in sports they traditionally dominate, but they have had some close calls in their medal pursuit. How is the Chinese contingent looking? What are some other highlights at the Games? Also in this episode, we touch on some interesting stories that occurred away from competition in Paris.

Duration:: 28m
Broadcast on:: 02 Aug 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

[Music] Hello and thank you for joining us on Sideline's Story, your destination for sports, news, analysis, and discussions. I'm Brandon Yates and today we'll bring you our next chat focusing on the 2024 Paris Olympics. We'll examine the exciting action we have seen so far, team China's performances, some of the biggest surprises we have seen so far, as well as any other interesting stories that have emerged from the games. I'll be getting into these topics with my two fantastic co-hosts Yangguan and Fuyu and Fuyu. The action is completely underway. It's still the early stages but even at these early stages we've already seen so much in terms of action, some of the stories happening on the sports fields and in the action of play but also away from the actual sporting action itself. There's been headlines all over the place from what you've seen so far, what action has caught your eye? On the competition side of things, I know all athletes have worked very hard for this opportunity and they all deserve to be recognized for their efforts but I, of course, have been paying most of my attention to Chinese athletes and while they all deserve our support, there is one particular athlete who caught my eye and that is China's equestrian Alex Huatien. He's a bit of a rough time, though, with points, deductions and all of that sort of thing. There's a bit of a controversy. I'll get into that. His competition has concluded and he finished in 23rd place. Of course, that's nothing compared to his 8th place finish when he made his Olympic debut and there was also China's debut in the sport. I think representing the country and being the, I think he was the only equestrian at Paris 2024 for China because the other one retired after his horse got injured and representing China, there's some pressure but he also really just enjoyed his competition. The reason why I say I'm impressed by Alex Huatien is because he wasn't that much affected by that controversial judge decision. He seemed to do it quite well considering how controversial and questionable that decision was. Yes, yes, so an official unexpectedly appeared during the cross-country phase of his event in competition which spooked his horse. Maybe not completely spooked the horse because the horse didn't really throw the rider off to the ground or anything but it distracted his horse chocks. The rider picked up a 15-point penalty and they appealed that decision but the judges withheld their judgments. For me, I think that's not fair but it's part of the game and we respect the judges' decision and what impressed us was, like you said, he wasn't affected and he handled it really well. Even with that penalty, he still made it into the final. I think what's really important is that he looked so happy in the final. I think they have to. I think a part of the judgments is also the way that the horse rider holds themselves and the attitude that they have similar gymnastics. They want the athletes to smile and be dressed really well. It's part of the scoring in an unwritten sort of way. Not only that, I think it just came from within because he is someone who really loves this sport and that is something worth mentioning. That impressed me a lot. For equestrians, they can have a longer career. The only shame is that the horse may not make it into the next Olympics but as the team leader for China's equestrian team said this sport is only going to become better in China. You probably find that he actually was mentally affected but I think that through personal strength and perseverance, he made it seem like he wasn't affected and he probably was also able to mentally overcome that stumbling block to deliver the best possible performance that he possibly could given the scenario. I think that triumph over adversity is a triumph in itself. I think he definitely deserves a lot of respect. Part of the Olympic spirit, he convinced himself that he's better than that and then he really is. Absolutely. I think he delivered an outstanding performance on his own but also considering the circumstances that he had to deal with. It was a very memorable performance. I'd say and I think that's something we are going to be talking about for a long time now. As I've mentioned, we've already seen so much so far and team China has already delivered a pretty solid performance at this stage. One or two disappointments, I think maybe in the pool. But other than that, I think we've seen some good performances. We've seen some outstanding results from the USA, Japan, a couple of other countries too. One or two performances from South Africa that I'll get into as well. But from your perspective, what have you seen so far that really caught your eye? Well, for the Olympics, I mean, most defense with the focus on their own nation's delegation, me included. But I would say no one would miss Rafael Nadal against Novak Chokovic. Of course. Yeah. I mean, it probably was the most anticipated match at the Olympics. Like two of the three greatest tennis players we've probably ever seen in the generation. Fortunately, that match ended Lopsai did one, Chokovic won quite easily. The credit to Djokovic though, right? Considering all of the adversity that he's dealt with recently and I mean, no one was expecting him to deliver the performance that he delivered at Wimbledon and bouncing back from the knee injuries that he's had and all of the difficult circumstances that he's dealt with, that we've spoken about in previous podcasts. I think people anticipated potentially a closer match between him and Nadal. And to be fair to Nadal, he is also lacking fitness. But I don't think anyone, myself included, expected Djokovic to get through that match so convincingly, especially considering that that is Nadal's home. Clay courts, Roland Garros, I mean, that's basically like his backyard. Yeah. But I think most defense we're expecting marathon, classic marathon matchup between the two. Hoping for one at least. Yeah. Yeah. The two put down in the past at Grand Slams, like in Australia, an open French open. But I guess it just tells the reality of Walter Saitis, his referendum now is now. He's no longer among the first-year competitors in men's tennis anymore. But people said the same thing about Djokovic, right? I don't think anyone expected him to bounce back from his sit-backs as well as he has up until this point. I think the speed at which he's been able to get back to a very competitive level at his age is pretty remarkable. I think the difference between Djokovic and Nadal is that Djokovic seemed to be more affected by the mental side of things. So his decline was more about poor form. And Nadal's more physical. He's been plagued by injuries. Yeah. And it also seems to be a fitness issue for Nadal as opposed to Djokovic, I guess. Yeah. But to see the two old guards compete against each other, it's a beyond competition. Yeah. And we've mentioned this before, right? So I think even if we don't see the best of them, like when I went to go see Messi play for Inter Miami, fans are just excited to see that great player performing. Even if he's playing at 50% of what he used to play at, just to be able to see them doing their thing, even if you get one or two moments of brilliance, that is special. And you probably find in that match between Djokovic and Nadal, fans at the match and at home were able to experience one or two moments of magic at least. Yeah. It could be the last match-up between the two. Yeah. At this level at least, yeah. Yeah. I think in 50 years, when we look back at the Paris Olympics, I would remember this match more than the main singles final. Potentially. Yeah. Because the two greatest stars at this competition have already competed. Yeah. So I think that was very memorable. I was quite disappointed with the South African seven-sides performance. I think their only claim to France middle, which I think for me was a little bit disappointing. To be fair, we did lose to the hosts France who went on to win the gold medal. And rightfully so, they've got one of the best players in the world, Antoine DuPont, who has converted from 15s to sevens to play for the sevens team and he's now become a national hero. And of course, this might be a little bit of a touchy subject because Tatiana Smith claimed gold. I think it was in the 100 meter breaststroke. She managed to overtake China's Tang Chiang Ting in the final 10 meters. So that's why it's a little bit touchy because she denied China a gold medal. But I think that performance. And to see, you know, obviously I've been in China for quite some time now. So to see, I think for the first time, at least that I've seen in a sport, South Africa and China going head to head, that was great to see. And to see South Africa, you know, whatever country from to see your home country shine on the on a stage as big as the Olympics in any sport is just a memorable moment. So I think that I will definitely remember that for some time. That's interesting because in a lot of the sport, we don't have South Africa and China competing very rarely along each other. But South Africa has quite a fairly successful history with swimming. So I think that's where in the future, we might see a lot more competition between China and South Africa because we've seen China's meteoric rise in swimming. So hopefully in the future, we'll see a lot more competitions, not just between China, the US and Australia and swimming. Hopefully South Africa can be in that mix as well. So yeah, maybe but I think that's the one sport that we will see the two nations compete at a relatively equal level because if it was rugby, obviously South Africa would dominate. But if it was table tennis, I mean, South Africa wouldn't even make it to the quarterfinals, for example. So yeah, hopefully we can see future battles in swimming between China and Africa. I believe Smith's victory gave you the bragging rights in office, right? Yeah, for now. But I think for the rest of the Olympics, China's going to have bragging rights for a lot more sports. Speaking of team China, Yang Guang, we've seen some pretty solid performances in some expected sports, I would say, like diving in table tennis. People were expecting a lot more goals. China's expectations for the swimming team were incredibly high, considering how China has only recently, I would say emerged as a swimming giant compared to the likes of the US and Australia. But talk me through team China's performance so far. What have you made of it? Well, I think it's mixed performance in some sports like table tennis and diving, like you mentioned, team China is still dominant. Totally dominant, yeah. But in some other sports, I would not say the Chinese athletes didn't do well, rather they did accidentally. But the results ended really some pities, huge pities. Like in shooting, Wang Yutin forced an extra round against South Korean, sorry. No, no, no, not yet. Maybe we'll be a shooting force in the future, hopefully. Anyway, Wang Yutin forced an extra round against a South Korean shooter in the final duel between the two for the gold medal. And she lost just by 0.1 points. And she's 17 years old, right? I mean, imagine being a teenager at that level and trying to deal with that heartbreak. I mean, I can't even imagine what that must feel like. Both are teenagers. I think the South Korean gold medalist isn't that much younger than Wang. Yeah, I think she might. Oh, is the South Korean athlete younger than the Chinese athletes? I'm not sure. But yeah, let's just put it that way. Yeah, but to lose like that, he's devastating, yeah. I think there's been a couple of close calls for China, right? It was kind of between like a a gold and a silver or between a silver and a bronze. There were a lot of disappointing close calls for China in gymnastics. Yeah, the Chinese men's team was leading by three more than three points, which is a huge gap in gymnastics competition before the final event of horizontal bar. And China's suveda, he just needed to finish his routine and to secure a team, China's gold medal. But he fell not once, but twice from the bar and allowed team Japan to make the comeback. It happens in sports when the final minutes came. I think in 2008, an American shooter, an air rifle shooter, he just needs to land a mark on the target to win the gold medal. But he missed it and shot it on the opponent's mark. Someone else's target. And at that level, I mean, that's unheard of. So the only explanation for something like that can be nerves. There's no other explanation. Yeah, but no blame here, no hard feelings. And it happens to everyone. It happens in sports. I don't think the superstars become superstars if they didn't go through adversities difficult times like this. And don't learn to deal with pressure. They wouldn't get to that level unless they were able to deal with pressure. Yeah, decisive mistakes. Yeah, but what's so hard about team event is that to win the gold medal, especially at the Olympics, which only comes every four years. It requires the utmost dedication, the most perfect performance from everyone. And so for one person to perform badly and ruin everyone else's game, it's hard breaking. It's hard breaking. We can't blame them because you can't say they didn't work hard. But it's just sometimes you have to just have to accept that. Yeah, yeah, with that brace through that. I think that's the issue. I think is that, you know, there's there's no doubt that every single athlete deserves to be there. They've worked incredibly hard, but then it often comes down to a moment. And sometimes at that level, one moment, one mistake, one slip of mental strength can, you know, ruin your entire prospects of claiming a gold medal, a silver medal or bronze medal. So we've seen a couple of those moments and unfortunately, we have seen one or two of those moments for individual athletes for team China, and we just have to hope that they are able to bounce back from that incredible disappointment and either bounce back later in the competition or at a future Olympic game. Yeah, if they manage to do that, they'll grow, it'll separate. That's what separates an Olympic champion and just an average athlete. Yeah, I think the ability to bounce back, right? I think that's a huge determining factor between winners and losers and and greats and just, you know, one time hits. I suppose we've already seen a couple of surprises for you. I mean, we've already mentioned one or two close calls and one or two disappointments, but beyond that, we've also seen some incredible, you know, victories like the mixed doubles for team China in table tennis and, you know, like I mentioned, France being the hometown heroes in the in the sevens rugby competition. So we've seen and I think that's what's also fantastic about the Olympics is that it's so emotional because we've seen these incredible highs for some and incredible lows for others. And while it must be incredibly challenging for athletes, I think as fans, it just keeps us on the edge of our seats. And I like that feeling. Yeah, me too. But I think for athletes, it must be awful. But for fans, it's fantastic. But I think with that in mind, we've seen a lot of surprises, good and bad. What surprises have you seen so far? For me, this is a good surprise. We could use some good vibes now. Yeah. And it's the South Sudanese basketball team. Yes. They made their Olympic debut. And this is they are the only African team to qualify in basketball, men's basketball for Paris 2024. And here, let's not forget that South Sudan was only it's the world's youngest country. It was only founded in 2011. Yeah. And now they have an Olympic basketball team. I believe the majority of their Olympic delegation, the athletes, most of them are here to play for basketball. And in their opening game, I believe it's 90 to 79. They won against Puerto Rico. And that's very inspiring. I can imagine how that's making people in South Sudan feel because we've been there. Like China had its first Olympian in 1932. And one is first gold medal in 1984. And by the way, getting into that historic first Olympic medal later in our show. But for South Sudan, it's just such a memorable moment. I know last week, we talked about how good their basketball team is and how they made LeBron James and the USA team work during a friendly. Yeah. I think LeBron James won it in the last second with a layup. So it was a very close match. Yeah. I believe the USA only won by one point in that friendly. So yeah, South Sudan and basketball is a rising force in world sports. And definitely a big surprise, right? No one saw that coming. Yes, yes. And people in that country didn't even have facilities. They're coached that they had to train in Rwanda. And even with that, they still managed to do so well. I can only attribute that to talent. And just like, again, mental fortitude and there's another example of just coming through adversity, making it to the biggest stage, competing with some of the best nations in the world, and actually getting some results. Yeah. And some impressive results. And I think this basketball team will go very far even beyond this Olympics. Their individuals may get some chances in the world's other basketball league. Yeah. Yeah. And hopefully there'll be more of a focus on Africa as a continent in terms of the NBA, for example, trying to identify talent. Because I think that's the direction that we see the NBA going in, because of course, this Americans still dominate the league. But there's definitely a huge amount of foreigners that are also dominating the league right now, Yogech and Aterekumpo. Yeah. Yeah. There's so many that are not just taking part in the league, but actually being in the top five, top 10 of all of the players. So maybe in the future, we'll see a top 10 NBA athlete from South Sudan. Who knows? I think this is a very good start in terms of putting a level of focus on the South Sudan basketball team and seeing what talent we might see coming out of that country going into the future. But they've definitely stepped up to the plate, and it's been fantastic to see. Yang Guang, any surprises besides that? I would mention a surprise for bad reasons. You mentioned Chinese swimmers. I said before, I would focus on the swimming competitions and the follow Chinese swimmers action. Yeah. Because there's so many stars in the pool that we were expecting to do well. Yeah. But I have to say, some of them didn't really deliver their best, especially Ching Hai Yang, breaststroke King. I think he came seventh in men's 100 meter breaststroke. That's it. Yeah. He's the 100 meter and 200 meter breaststroke world champion last year. And yeah, he finished in seventh in 100 meter and didn't even get into the final in 200. I watched his 100 meter competition and that was a bizarre performance. And he was the fastest in the first 50 meters by the slowest among eight competitors in the latter half of the race. That indicates a bad strategy, I think. But he's best known for his final stretch sprint. Yeah. So then why would he be so incredibly fast in the first stretch when he's normally fast in the final stretch? Yeah. That's why it's so bizarre. Yeah. So for me, that indicates either bad tactics between him and his coach or nerves. Maybe he came out of the blocks too quickly because he was too excited and wanted to be as dominant as possible and then flagged in the last 50 meters. He mentioned after that race that he last totally lost his pace in the final 50 meters. And I think something similar was said by Zhang Yufei, the Chinese women's swimmer. She won a bronze medal in butterfly. But I think she's a gold medal hopeful and she deserves a gold medal in that competition. But it ended up a bronze medal. She also said for the final part of the race, she lost her rhythm quickly. Yeah. And a couple of other names, Shuxia Yu and Tan Chan Ting. I think they're all world-class swimmers. But I'm not saying bronze or silver are not good enough because they are. But it still doesn't live up to the expectations that we had. Yeah, exactly. So that's the thing. I mean, it's still a great achievement, but we were expecting so much more. Yeah. I'm not looking for excuses, but I do think the jet lag too many drug tests. Yeah. I think Zhang Yufei mentioned that at one point she was getting calls at five o'clock in the morning to get tested, which is, you know, I mean, hugely disruptive for a world-class athlete to be waking up at random times in the early morning or even day. I just think they are tired and not adjusted. Yeah, not adjusted mentally, physically. Maybe on the tactics side, there are something mistaken from the team because in Asia, in China, those swimmers, they don't need to take care of the first 50 meters that much because they will overtake all the swimmers from the beginning. And then for you away from some of the action and, you know, in the actual action itself, there's been a couple of interesting stories as well, a couple of heartwarming stories, a couple of unexpected turns. So I think there's been a lot of intrigue away from just results. Have any interesting stories, you know, have there been any interesting stories that you've noticed so far? Here's an interesting fact that I'd like to mention earlier, I said China won this first very first Olympic gold medal in 1984. And this year is actually 40 years since China won that gold medal. And both events, like in back in 1984, you have won one, became China's first Olympic champion in men's free pistol. And that was in shooting. And this year in Paris, China's first gold medal at the Games also came from shooting. So it's like history repeating itself? Yeah, the athlete, yeah, it's a repeat of history. The athlete, Yang Guo mentioned Huanyu Tian and her partner, Shong Li Hao, won the mixed team event. And the first gold medal at Paris 2024. And of course, first gold medal for team China this year. And I know it's because of the schedule because shooting competitions generally start early at every Olympics. But to be able to be a medal hopeful, to be in contention to win an Olympic gold medal, you have to be ready all the time. China has in the past Olympic Games, China has also succeeded several times on capturing the first gold medal. So I think in this regard, China has been rather consistent, at least... Over 40 years, yeah. At least in shooting. And if you think about that, it's been 40 years. And it's incredible how China has grown from just going for a... For one ball, to becoming a dominant force. Unbelievable growth over the last 40 years. And it's been great to see, really has been. Any interesting stories from your side, Yang Guoang? I know from my side, some of the things that I've noticed that some viral videos online of some of the athletes testing those plastic cardboard beds to test their durability and their sustainability. And I think that they've all been put to the test and apparently all of those beds are incredibly strong. So that's been great to see. And I think that's in line with the sustainability goal that the Paris Olympics has. Yes, those beds were the idea for those beds first came during Tokyo 2020. Yes, of course. And yeah, they're back this year. And also the matrices. Yes. You can adjust them. They consist of three blocks. And you can flip them, switch them to make the... You can like choose your own firmness. So sustainable and adjustable, yeah. Yeah, yeah, firmness. Very cool, very cool. And I think there's also been some controversy with the river Seine. I know they've had some bad, like with the rain and the pollution, all of that. I think they had to delay the men's triathlon. So it's been quite a difficult thing for the Paris organizers to deal with, because I think Paris has spent something like $1.5 billion trying to clean the river. And last week I was saying that I was excited. My modern athletes will get the experience just swimming the river. But to be fair, they've been very unlucky with the rain. I think if it didn't rain, they wouldn't have any pollution issues. But I think that's something that the city as a whole need to look at in terms of pollution levels and sustainability and that sort of thing. So hopefully that is something that can get sorted out in the near future. So those are two stories that, there was also an Egyptian female fencer that won one of her matches while being seven months pregnant, which is a pretty room. And she only made the announcement once she had actually, because she eventually lost one of her matches, but she only made the announcement once she had left the competition. So did she only find out? No, no, no, she's seven months pregnant. So she's known the whole time. But I don't think her opponents knew. Yeah, but what was her bump visible? I think so. I mean, they were probably able to, they were able to obviously cover it with the, you know, the suit and whatever. And I guess people just assume that she was just like a little bit bigger than the average athlete or whatever. Yeah, she was seven competing at seven months pregnant, which I mean, to actually win an Olympic match. It's seven months pregnant. I mean, can you imagine? It reminds me once Serena Williams won an Australian Open while she was pregnant. Exactly, exactly. I mean, there's also, there was this some Italian archer that looks exactly like Eminem. And that also has gone very viral on social media. They're calling him the Italian Eminem, because he literally looks exactly like the American rapper. So when I saw the two photos together, I thought it was just Eminem, like trying to pick up some sort of side hustle, representing Italy. So that was also quite cool to see. I also saw a very interesting video on social media. And it's also in fencing. Chinese women's fans used Han, felt embarrassingly in front of a French opponent in one of her match. And she stumbled right in front of her opponent's knee. And the video is funny itself. But what makes it even funnier is the video was released by you herself. And so she saw the lighter side of things. Yeah. Yeah. And she wrote in that post, "It's my big break in Paris." Yeah. We all need that sense of humor. Yeah. And also like it could be because I think when Olympics come to an end, obviously we remember the records broken and the gold medals won. But there's also so many moments that we remember that actually have nothing to do with the competition. And this is probably going to be one of those moments. At this early stage of the Olympics, we've already seen some fantastic action. We've seen some incredible highs, some incredible lows. We've seen some surprises. We've seen some disappointments. So I think as fans, our emotions are going to keep going up and down as we do expect with the Olympics. But that's all we have time for. On this week's episode of Sideline Story, thank you so much for joining us. And of course, we will be back next week with our latest topic. And we'll see you then.