Xinhua Commentary: U.S. media coverage of Chinese Olympians shows double-standard

BEIJING, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) — An American TV commentator recently labelled Gu Ailing, a freeskier of Chinese descent, as “ungrateful” when competing in the Winter Olympics for China, and argued that it is “shameful” for her to “betray” the United States.

These offensive and insulting remarks ram home not only the decay of the professional integrity of some American journalists but also their impotence and rage as they watch the country’s once supreme position on the world stage crumble.

Laying bare facts and logic reveals the blatant double-standard at play in this slanted coverage of Gu.

If the Republic of Korea (ROK), the last host of Winter Olympics, and Italy, the next host, introduced a foreign player with ROK or Italian heritage to compete for them, and six years from now, if the United States naturalizes an Olympian for itself, would their actions raise eyebrows? Certainly not. The whole world would accept it.

Sports are the most open and inclusive sector on earth, where the flow and nationality switching of top-tier athletes are common. It is indeed a resounding affirmation of the progress of our times and advances the cause of sports.

However, when China hosts the Winter Olympics and introduced Gu, who is of Chinese descent and speaks the Chinese language fluently, a few Americans hurled extremely caustic and abusive remarks. Is there any reason for this?

In the 1980s and 1990s, most of the world’s top-ranked tennis players were Americans, or more specifically, those with American citizenship. Pete Sampras is of Greek descent, while Martina Navratilova came from the then Czechoslovakia and Monica Seles was from the former Yugoslavia. Why didn’t American TV commentators accuse Navratilova and Seles of “betraying” their motherland to serve the United States?

Americans should remember that high-profile athletes Lang Ping and Li Yan, who were both trained in China, once participated in the Summer and Winter Olympics as coaches of American teams, and helped them accomplish remarkable results. They gained respect and praise from the American public.

The vast majority of Chinese people believe that this is the normal result of international sports exchanges, which is conducive to mutual learning among civilizations, and they will not insult these athletes or brand them as “ungrateful betrayers.”

The United States can gather talent from all over the world and make them its own, but when it comes to China, criticism and sarcasm pour in. Is this not a typical double standard and hegemonic logic?

Opting to represent a certain country at the Olympics is a basic human right for athletes. It deserves respect.

Some Americans always talk about human rights but do not practice what they preach. They attacked Gu’s reasonable decision. It is no exaggeration to say that their actions have violated the human rights of athletes, who should be free to compete for any country they please.

Gu is only 18 years old with a whole life ahead of her. She is blessed with many options no matter which path she chooses.

The vulgar words used by the American TV commentators have exposed their mentality — they can’t afford to lose. As an opinion piece on CNN said, much of the criticism on Gu seems to be “grounded in America’s frustration with an ascendant China relative to the United States.”

In his book “Decisive Moments in History,” Austrian writer Stefan Zweig wrote about a legendary race between British explorer Robert Falcon Scott and Norwegian man Roald Amundsen to be the first to reach the South Pole. When Scott arrived in the Antarctic after a long hard journey, he was dismayed by a flying Norwegian flag planted by Amundsen’s team one month before.

A letter from the conqueror of the Pole waited for the unknown second comer, asking him to forward it to the king of Norway. Scott took it upon himself to perform this heavy duty of acting as a witness to a deed that he longed to be his own.

Although he and his members lost the race and died on the return trip, the legend of that expedition continues to echo down the years and is immortalized in the history of human endeavor and exploration.

The Antarctic battle sheds insights into how we should deal with defeat. You’re not always going to be on the winning side. Learning to lose with grace is a part of the sporting spirit and reflects the magnanimity of a major country.

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