Wang Liping, an ethnic Manchu, representing China, became an Olympic champion by winning the 20-kilometer event.
This race was full of twists and turns.
The second Wang Liping first showed up in the stadium first, over 110,000 people sat there in the stadium in shock, as she took her first place and won her gold medal.
No one could imagine that such a moment deserving of a celebration would soon become so awkward, yet sad.
After Wang Liping got first place, she excitedly cheered at the audience with her arms in the air, but the entire stadium was dead silent. The audience is all filled with disbelief as if they do not know what just happened. Who is this Asian woman? How on earth is she first? Where is our Australian Olympian? Only a translator near the edge of the field gave this woman a hug.
The entire stadium only had this one Chinese person, and there wasn't even a Chinese flag found. She looked around anxiously from left to right, but still couldn't find a single Chinese flag and could only hold back her tears.
Instead of proudly wearing her country's flag cape around the stadium and receiving applause for all her hard work.
She awkwardly walked around the stadium with empty hands
For years she said she couldn't get herself to watch the video of her winning the Olympics because every time she sees it, makes her want to cry. She dedicated all her life, and even put her health on the line for this result. It became one of her biggest sorrow and regret.
I never understood why people only cheered on athletes from their country - Australian TV does it all the time during the Olympics. Only showing when Australian athletes win a medal - I wanna see everyone compete and see if any beat the world record for that event and cheer them on. But then people think I'm weird anyway.
@Thevy29 Australian sport stars are raised unreasonably to hero status, when sadly so many of them would be in jail for violence if they hadnt been great at throwing or kicking a ball, or hitting one with a bat.At the top level, sport isnt sport any more..😷
Thanks for that. I'd never heard of this. Got curious. She said that when she got back to China even the journalists ignored her. Looks like a lot of walkers committed fouls, and walking wasn't a key Chinese sport, but she had a really hard road to get there. You'd think that alone would mean something.
In Sydney, Wang finally took the gold after the other race leaders were disqualified for committing fouls. Since she was not China's leading gold-medal hope, Wang was considered a dark horse. Her victory was attributed more to luck than real strength and some media called it a plotted strategy within the Chinese race walking team.
"I was very angry at the time because when I came back to China, most of the journalists asked me the same question about the gold medal," said Wang. "Race walking is an event that is full of accidents. I won because my techniques had been approved by the referees."
You make it read like an anti-Chinese situation. It wasn't. A little bit of context helps. Australians were disappointed because the Australian athlete, Jane Saville, who had been leading had just been disqualified at the stadium gates in the walk. That's what the emotion was about. 1. Video shows people were applauding. On the Chinese propaganda channels this is blurred out. 2. 'No-one prepared a national flag for her'. That's not an official thing. That only happens when someone in the crowd has one and the athlete grabs it. I think you've been reading Chinese nationalistic propaganda. I have Chinese relatives, I'm not anti-Chinese. But the Chinese government are a different story.
@Abstraction You interpreted it as an anti-Chinese situation. You are allowed to have opinions, but you cannot twist my words and put labels on them. When have I ever used the words Anti-Chinese to describe this situation? When have I brought up the Chinese government even once in this post?
I don't see how your extra context helps with the main points I am trying to get across in this post, but I do appreciate the extra information and a different perspective on the look of things. However, I did in fact, include the Australian disappointment part.
"Who is this Asian woman? How on earth is she first? Where is our Australian Olympian?"
(although I admit, I did not word it out in a professional way as you did by including a name and such, and was more focused on the perspective of the person I'm talking about's emotions and perspective- because this is what this post is about, however, I am more than happy to add your sentence into my post if you'd like)
1) I watched the French version, not the Chinese. Yes, the applause eventually did come, but there was a moment of confusion and silence before people caught up with what was happening. Clapping out of respect vs. cheering, and celebrating one's success are two completely different things, and quite frankly, in a situation like that, it is very difficult for people to hide their disappointment even if they want to. (I don't blame them, but once again, imagine how she would have felt in that situation. And I think we can both agree that if the person coming out first was Jane Saville the reaction would be totally different, which again, is understandable. If the person who got first place was a Canadian I would definitely be more excited than a Chinese person (or any other nationality) getting first) but again, this post is focused on her feelings during one of the most important moments of her life.
2) Yes, it's not an official thing, but you can't deny that it is not commonly done. and plus, it's what she wanted. In other words, it is important to her. And in her own words, it is one of her biggest regret as a gold medal Olympian, that she didn't get to do it. I've explained in another comment (which I suggest you go read it) already how there was a flag, but then the coach literally left her there because no one believed that she could get first. (Apparently, when the coach heard that she got first place, immediately went back with the flag, but was not allowed back in) She even asked the one Chinese translator that gave her a hug if there was a flag, and was told no.
Imagine if I have a class, it's not official that I, as a teacher must hand out cupcakes, however, every time a student hands in their work first, I do hand them a cupcake. But when this time, a child tries absolutely her hardest and successfully hands her work in, I say to her, "oh, I wasn't expecting that you're able to achieve that so I did not bring you a cupcake". Like, it is an awkward and sad situation to be in. Especially since this is the Olympics, you have everyone around the world watching, and you literally have to walk around the stadium showing everyone that you are empty-handed. Not only that, people always label her winning the Olympics as "pure luck", and not just others, but her own country, and their people also say that about her. It is heartbreaking.
It is a bit upsetting that you are trying to bring politics and propaganda into this, and let me ask you if we switch China to America (or whatever other country), Wang Liping to Lily Williams, would you still have commented exactly what you had?
@Miyue Ok, I apologise. I do genuinely sympathise with her and feel her disappointment. I feel the same for Naomi Osaka when she won her first US Open against Serena. That wasn't what I was commenting on. I googled it and saw incorrect statements on the video but regret distracting from the point of your story.
She won. That she didn't feel appreciated until she got home isn't really something to cry over.
p.s.
There was a large Chinese flag and several smaller ones in the audience. China's flag was raised at the awards podium as well. I couldn't find a video where the soundtrack wasn't drowned out by Chinese music and narration.
Its worse then that. The Chinese speed walker team Abandoned her. They had a favorite on the team pumped up for months that got DQed early in the race. She was so mad she got the rest of the team to quit with her after the others were also DQed for fouls, and went back and bad mouthed the eventual winner to the coaches and media that she was a scene stealer and they all left, and when the Chinese saw the team pack up, they figured why stick around since it looked like the team was out. The Team then shunned the winner for a few days and Chinese Media Blacklisted her, until the rest of the world was asking what had happened and the Chinese Olympic committee investigated, the Others team members and coaches on the team were all later punished and fined for their disrespect to a fellow teammate and CHINESE HERO.
@Miyue I can sympathize with the poor woman but nobody really needs to win a gold medal. and receive cheering. its an honor but not a necessary component of life.
@pancakeslam In a sense, you are right. She won't die from this. But as someone who's seen firsthand what these athletes go through in order to get there, what their life becomes if they fail, and all the sacrifices they've made. I think each and every athlete, gold or not (but even more, if one does get gold because, in a way, they've reached their "ultimate goal") deserves some sort of celebration or acknowledgment.
In her case, she grew up poor and practiced so hard to the point that she became physically disabled multiple times. (and eventually, at age 30, she was forced to permanently quit due to all her injuries) She has stomach problems, so every time she practices, she would be throwing up, to the point where her throw-up only contains yellow bile.
Being an athlete is really harsh, the reality is unless you get gold, you won't be getting any sponsorships or anything after a couple of years. You will end up getting jobs that pay the bare minimum wage.
And also, that year, China actually had 3 female athletes in this race (including her). What happened was, the coach literally cleaned up and left her there all alone in the middle of the race after seeing that his 2 other athletes were done for. She was kind of a "spare", and no one, including her own coach, thought that she would've won.
Like, adding all this together, I really can't imagine how that would've felt.
