Who Sport What?

China's 1,000 Boat March

Totalitarian states have long demonstrated the potential to achieve sporting success by bludgeoning their way to the top. China's march towards dominating the medal count at the Beijing Games, at least in terms of golds won, is no different. But it's hard to suppress a sigh of admiration when reading lines like the following, tucked away towards the bottom of a China Daily piece on the recent sailing test events in Qingdao:

"The government purchased 1,000 boats for young sailors with 10 million yuan ($1.3 million) donated by local companies.

"To teach these youth to sail, we have also held five training camps with coaches from seven different countries and we have sent some excellent young sailors to get trained in Kiel in Germany," Deputy Mayor Zang Aimin said."

In the 15th and 16th centuries, following a doctrine of Confucian inward perfection, China turned its back on seafaring. With no naval defense to speak of many port towns were handed over to foreign control after the Opium wars. Qingdao was outside of Chinese control for the first half of the 20th century, changing colonial hands often. It's heartening to see the city flourish and to see it flourish with sport at its heart. The beer is still good, too.

London's New Olympic Face

A new logo was unveiled for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games today. Most people seeem to think it looks just horrible. Let's compare it with those that have gone before. London 1908 didn't have a logo, but the last London Games did:

More recent logos have sought to maintain that bold yet simple link with the host city. The running man Chinese script character in Beijing's logo is a typical example:

  Clearly a new departure, then. But resistance to change is not the only apparent source of dismay at the new design.

It's really not hard to see why many dislike London's new logo. The graphical link to London itself is not clear. It works much better in dynamic form than standing still. The logo does away with the tradition of incorporating the colors of the Olympic rings, too, and so might be said to dilute the Olympic brand itself. It's also too easy to knock the launch, with an lack of opportunities for easy interaction: there's  nothing to download and play with. Nothing to share. No screensaver for my mobile phone. Just a bunch of brand protection small print. Even London 2012's online press release had no logo link.

So the logo itself is resolutely, perhaps defiantly modern. To this extent it is reminiscent of the atonal, dissonant screeching and clanging that passes for that wonderful contradiction,   modern classical music. That's useful: the modern Olympic Games have not been modern for a really long time. As an ethereal and temporary event, the Olympic Games seem to have a more tangible past than future. But modernisation will only work if it directly helps youth reconnect with traditional sport, while making adults more active. That's the goal. To meet it, London's real challenge with the Olympic brand is not updating classical but recreating pop.

Olympic Extremes: Fitter And Fatter

News from London that hosting the Olympic Games might not increase sporting participation merely echoes news from China of soaring childhood obesity and declining participation in school physical education (P.E.).

Unlike other nations, however, China's declining youth sports participation is likely to be masked in international sporting competition. While preparing to host the Games, China has concurrently developed a system of specialized sports schools, set to sustain the medal-table victory likely to be achieved in 2008.

(Photo: Mark Leong / Matrix)

That still leaves 15.1% of boys in Shanghai as "obese" (compared with 18% of boys in the U.S. as "overweight"). In an attempt to turn things around, the city authorities have mandated more P.E. and inclusion of P.E. grades in overall assessments of students' performances. Most Western societies would do well to flip the same switch.

Sly's Rocky Road To HGH Bust

Sylvester Stallone has been charged with trying to bring pled guilty to bringing 48 vials of recombinant Human Growth Hormone into Australia. But he denies having had anything to do with the four vials of testosterone that appear to have been thrown from his hotel room balcony minutes before a visit from Australian Customs...

What, you thought he got his 60 year-old body into this kind of shape for "Rocky Balboa" just by eating his Wheaties for breakfast?

Photo: 20th Century Fox.

Following the bust, he joins Anna Nicole-Smith as an outed Hollywood HGH (ab)user. Schwarzenegger only admitted to steroids.

By all accounts, the HGH Sly was smuggling was Jintropin, the market leader in China. 48 vials of it indeed, with no import license and without even a valid prescription. It’s surprising, perhaps, that he didn’t have a scrip: in Los Angeles 60 dollars will quickly and easily get you a note for marijuana to help with a bad back or a prescription for Viagra to help with stage fright.

The sheer quantity of HGH Sly was apparently carrying is bound to turn some heads in the sports medicine world. 48 vials is enough to build a roomful of bodies. Was he taking it to Thailand to beef up the extras on the set of Rambo IV, now shooting? The most likely answer: Jintropin is available over the internets, direct from the manufacturer, in 50 vial kits. With the Beijing 2008 Olympics just around the corner, what on Earth is the Chinese government doing, allowing Jintropin HGH directly onto the grey and black markets?

The Australian authorities are to be commended for their vigilance: the bust brings back memories of Willy Voets and Alexander Vinokourov's wife (in cycling, being busted by customs with bags full of drugs is relatively commonplace). The media reports the maximum fine Stallone will face is only 22,000 Aussie dollars.

Seeing HGH being caught yet again at a port of entry is also a stark reminder of the difficulties sports medicine has had in devising an effective test. WADA and the IOC claimed to have a test prior to the Athens Olympics. But not a single analytical positive has come back. Are we really to believe movie stars are the only ones to have been using HGH to boost performance? After Feds here in the USA raided the home of Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Jason Grimsley, finding HGH, Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig downplayed the issue:

"I've asked that question [about the extent of HGH use] to a lot of [team] doctors and trainers," Selig said, during a question-and-answer session with members of the Baseball Writers Association of America. "The most I've gotten out of anybody is, 'If more than one or two people on our team is doing it, we'd be shocked.'"

Only one or two per team? Oh, so no real problem there, then.

Beijing 2008: Darfur, Human Rights Update

China has acted quickly to head off the burgeoning "Genocide Olympics" campaign linking its government, Darfur and the Olympic Games. In response to a letter to Premier Hu Jintao signed by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Tom Lantos (D. Calif.) and 106 of his colleagues, China has appointed Liu Guijin to the newly created post of Special Representative on African Affairs.

"It would be a disaster for China if the Games were to be marred by protests, from concerned individuals and groups, who will undoubtedly link your government to the continued atrocities in Darfur, if there is no significant improvement in the conditions," said the letter.

The rub lies in "significant improvement". Can China ever do enough to satisfy the protest groups? Will the Games simply give rise to debate on how much human rights progress China has made and whether it was enough to match their bid's promises to the IOC?

What's certain is that the "Genocide Olympics" story will run and run. Pro baller Ira Newble is gathering NBA signatures for an open letter that is sure to score another news hit in the coming weeks.

The Chinese, meanwhile, continue to crack down hard on activists in advance of the Games. The order has come from the top. Minister of Public Security Zhou Yongkang said in March: "We must make efforts to create a harmonious society and a good social environment for successfully holding the 17th Communist Party Congress and the Beijing Olympic Games[…]We must strike hard at hostile forces at home and abroad, such as ethnic separatists, religious extremists, violent terrorists and ‘heretical organizations’ like the Falun Gong who carry out destabilizing activities."

Beijing 2008, A Darfur Boycott?

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Beijing has been lobbying Washington D.C.in an attempt to head off an Olympic boycott predicated on China’s role in Sudan. Conflict in Darfur persists (by all reasonable accounts, over 300,000 have died). China continues to back the administration in Khartoum, which has been charged with war crimes.

Without oil from Sudan—70% of the country’s production goes to China—the next Olympic host would not be able to fuel its phenomenal growth. And with China placing little public pressure on Khartoum, activists and politicians have added Darfur to Tibetan independence, human rights, Taiwan and media freedoms as a reason for an Olympic boycott.

High-ranking members of the House, from both sides, are already talking boycott. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) has called China’s actions in Darfur “despicable”. Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo), has sponsored a boycott resolution since 2005. So it’s no surprise to see some Chinese diplomatic activity and its release of a “non-paper”. The paper says a boycott would contravene, “the universally recognized principle of sports being non-politics”. In the same paper, the Chinese defend their role in Darfur. They deserve credit for not pointing out that last time American lawmakers called for a boycott, it was because an evil superpower had invaded Afghanistan in the name of fighting terrorism...

Regardless of any boycott, Darfur seems certain to provide one more reason for protest during the Torch Relay, with Free Tibet activists already having taken their demonstrations as far as Everest base camp. As well as gathering steam, the activists also seem to have found a wicked sense of humour.