Early Olympics Predictions: Who Will Take Gold?

You know that’s actually a very interesting question. It seems contradictory, but I would say that the overall sentiment here from both fans and the general public is both fairly satisfied and quite disappointed at the same time.

In terms of overall medal count, given the strict lockdown measures that were in place over the last year, winning two events has been seen as a good result and was more or less in line with pre-tournament hopes and expectations. Still, in terms of individual performances and future prospects for the team as a whole, a lot of fans aren’t particularly optimistic.

For the winners CHEN Yufei and WANG/HUANG, there’s not much to say, they’ve been given the standard gold medal media treatment and can look forward to a slew of performance bonuses and endorsement opportunities.

For CHEN Long, no one is giving him a hard time about silver. Having already delivered in Rio, his Tokyo performance has been seen as a moral victory for an athlete of his age. Still, most fans view men’s singles as badminton’s premier event, and after getting accustomed to gold during the LIN Dan era, they’re anxious about who the next team “general” will be. Many were hoping the lockdown period would be a net positive for the injury prone SHI Yuqi, but his performance hasn’t seemed to inspire much confidence looking forward.

Men’s doubles… the response was pretty brutal for LI/LIU. The Chinese media complex has been trying hard to curb derogatory speech toward national team athletes, but the censors and algorithms couldn’t really hold this one back. The two issues were (1) a perceived “defeatist attitude” and “lack of fighting spirit” and (2) the politicization of contests between team China and team Chinese Taipei. Definitely some of the worst criticism I’ve seen Chinese athletes face outside the national football team.

The women’s pair may have been set for a similar public bashing, but ironically it was the cussing incident that really saved them. Almost any time a Chinese athlete comes under international scrutiny, the state apparatus will launch a campaign to rally public opinion back in their favor. In this case, the noise about the cussing drowned out most of the noise about their court positioning and shot selection.

So that’s the general feeling over here. Satisfied with the present, but also a bit uneasy about the future.