The Paris Olympics have come to a close, with Team China achieving remarkable results and ranking second in the total number of medals won after the United States. However, analysis suggests that unlike the U.S., China’s use of the “national system” to secure gold medals has three major drawbacks, as it comes at the expense of sacrificing grassroots sports. Some industry insiders in China criticize that the Olympic gold medals produced under the national system are more of a political movement.
In the just-concluded Paris Olympics, China secured numerous medals, with 40 gold medals on par with the U.S. and a total of 91 medals, placing them second only to the U.S. Chinese-American scholar Hu Ping told Voice of America, “This shows the so-called ‘superiority’ of the national system on the surface, which looks glorious and has inspired patriotic sentiments among the Chinese people.”
However, Hu Ping pointed out that the national system itself has a significant problem. Firstly, for the majority of people, it means that achieving success comes at the cost of many others’ sacrifices.
“These individuals who undergo such training from a young age and eventually climb to the top of the pyramid to achieve success are very few. Most people never reach that height and end up wasting their youth in vain, often leaving with disabilities. So, other countries would never adopt such a system.”
Secondly, Hu Ping noted that the achievements come at the expense of sacrificing the inclusivity and participation of the public in sports venues and activities.
“In other words, if you were to ask the average Chinese person: Would you prefer to see China earn more gold medals at the Olympics, or would you rather have more sports facilities and opportunities for sports activities for the Chinese people? Undoubtedly, I believe the Chinese people would choose the latter over the former.”
Thirdly, Hu Ping said that while China may be a superpower in terms of gold medals, it falls short of being a sports powerhouse. Its ability to become a gold medal powerhouse is precisely the result of the cost incurred to make it a sports powerhouse.
Countries like the U.S. and Australia are first sports powerhouses, then gold medal giants. They “allocate more resources to improve and promote the participation of the general public in sports activities, which embodies the true spirit of the Olympics. I believe this also meets the needs of a broader population.”
“Therefore, in terms of the spirit of the Olympics itself and in the interest of the Chinese people, this national system is evidently something that should be denied.”
Hu Ping also specifically mentioned that the national system of winning gold medals is the patent of an authoritarian regime. He stated that China has created a small group of outstanding athletes through this practice who can achieve many gold medals and rankings in international sports competitions. This can only be achieved under an authoritarian system, making it not an advantage but a drawback for China.
China continuously spends huge sums of money and spares no cost in selecting and training gold medal athletes, with analysts believing it’s to showcase its authoritarian prestige.
Independent Beijing media personality Gao Yu told Radio Free Asia, “Chinese athletes and coaches are entirely financially supported by the state, which is funded by taxpayers’ money. After Liu Xiang won the gold medal, the statistics for that year show that one gold medal cost 700 million Chinese Yuan. Why does the CCP invest so heavily in the pursuit of gold medals? It’s to use gold medals as the face of authoritarianism.”
She remembered during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, a foreign table tennis player competed in Beijing without a coach, doctor, or any entourage and achieved decent results.
Commentator Cai Shenkun also expressed that the CCP spares no effort to select and train athletes to win Olympic gold medals, a strategy that significantly differs from western countries.
He said, “We see professional athletes in western countries, but many also engage in other jobs, and western nations do not have specialized institutions or organizations devoted to training and funding Olympic champions; many champions are products of amateur sports.”
Cai Shenkun believes that as a populous country, China focuses all its efforts and national strength to develop a large number of excellent athletes, so it’s not surprising to secure 91 Olympic medals.
In reality, China’s investment in grassroots sports is minimal. Sun Nan, a staff member of the National Sports Administration of China, told Radio Free Asia that while the government invests heavily in national team athletes, there is almost no investment in grassroots sports.
“There is almost no investment in grassroots sports. I have relatives working at the National Sports Administration, working on grassroots sports, but they are poor. They basically don’t receive funding. If the country invested in grassroots sports, the level of a particular sport could improve significantly.”
She believes, “It’s not really about sports but a political movement, similar to the Great Leap Forward in the past.”
Jiangsu netizen Zha Wuquan told Radio Free Asia that for decades, the Chinese government has invested heavily in cultivating Olympic champions, and ordinary people do not necessarily feel proud of the Chinese athletes who win Olympic gold medals.
“The number of Olympic gold medals cannot represent the health of the Chinese people, because the mechanism they train is a sports (competition) machine. The physical fitness of the Chinese people is relatively poor because sports are not given much importance; you can see from school grading systems that physical education is not prioritized.”
Gao Yu also stated that ordinary Chinese citizens do not have access to free healthcare or education, and the national system does not enhance the nation’s physical fitness. Olympic athletes are similar to what netizens describe as “crickets raised by landlords,” being spoiled until they fail and are abandoned.
Commentator and overseas Chinese pastor Guo Baosheng told Voice of America that Chinese sports have been highly politicized by the CCP. The aim of the CCP’s development of sports is to prove its greatness and righteousness. “Because the Chinese way of developing sports is a national system, the entire country, the entire administration’s resources are used to win gold medals and accolades, a method completely different from western countries like the U.S. and Taiwan.”