It is the so-called "national pride". Many countries value Olympic or Soccer world cup success highly and have special programs to boost that. Many players felt it a great honor to play for their national teams for free. It is very different from an immigrant country like the US, where players are more playing for theirselves than for their country.
As I see it right now London's shaping up to be an exciting games. For one I am looking forward to our response mainly because we lost our place while never really being challenged for it. Now lets face it we are a direct conflict driven country when it comes to sports. We like the face to face fist fights. We got used to that with Russia when it came to the games. It didn't happen here. We sorta got hit sideways. As China didn't really do damage to us at all at these games. Jamaica and Australia did as well as our own short comings, but not China. They didn't affect our medal count at all really outside of that one swimming race. We basically took care of business like we always do ,but still came up short. I think this fact alone is what has been spurring a lot of the arguments and animosity in this thread because it is a hard pill to swallow. China's success was mainly due to the Olympic surge which all hosting nations generally experience and also due to the fact that events were added to the sports in which China is dominate in (this happens for all countries that host the Olympics) such as shooting, weightlifting, diving, badminton, table tennis ect.... add that up and you have a recipe for a huge take of gold medals. I mean if you look back to some athletic studies done in the last two years that were already taking these facts into account they were already predicting a China gold medal haul of upwards of 45 gold medals. Those turned out to be pretty dead on predictions. Now given the fact that we were hit sideways and not directly confronted I wouldn't doubt if we take to seriously competing for once in those events again as we did in the days of the Cold War. Also combine the fact that gymnastics is always up in the air. As with the men side it's always generally between the US, China, Russia, and the Japanese. It just depends on whose the dominant team during that Olympic year as the teams tend to rotate every three to four years in dominance. The women's side it's anyone's game as usual. Now throw in the fact that London should get a surge in its medal count and also with the way Russia is progressing back to it's old USSR tendencies I wouldn't doubt to see them resurrect in some moderate fashion their old sports program and see them seriously compete in these upcoming London games. They could be a real dark horse to these upcoming games in 2012. Mix all this together and you now have the potential for a really great and exciting games. (Oh on a side note. I have to say I enjoyed all of your arguments you had here on the topic of women's gymnastics. I intentionally stayed out of it because I have been there and done that when it comes to getting into arguments over this event. This is because with my second marriage to my now wife we have 6 daughters all of them gymnasts. I was forcibly made to endure 17 years of gymnastics up into the national platform on the collegiate level. I know every little in and out of this sport and all its major problems that are shared all the way up into the international level. And let me tell you what you all have been arguing about...well its tantamount to the proverbial tip of the iceberg. I mean take the new scoring system the IOC was using. No one likes it and it was always predicted to fail. It has always been likened to putting a band-aid on a person who was just mauled by a great white shark. I am just sorry that its first big test had to come at the expense of the Chinese people. But again I really enjoyed all of your arguments as you all sounded like first year gymnast parents and you all were causing me and my wife to have amusing flashbacks while we were reading this thread.)
It only shows communism has little to do with these programs. Anybody with a functioning brain knows China nowadays resembles nothing like a communist country, despite the name in CCP. Actually, China under Mao fitted a lot more closely to communist ideology. The funny thing is, the commies in China back then didn't give a damn about winning gold, or winning at all, in sporting events. It was all about "Friendship First, Competition Second." Things like that I don't expect you to know, though. South Korea's sports machine is pretty good at that, too. Just because you haven't seen and read about them doesn't mean those programs don't exist. The head coach for Chinese women's field hockey team is from South Korea, and he is well known for his relentless training method. Japanese women's volleyball team was a huge success story in the 1960's, only because they were coached by Daimatsu Hirofumi, who trained his players like a sadistic drill sergeant did to new recruits. Heck, even the much acclaimed, *legendary* Béla Károlyi of the *free world* was accused by his female U.S. gymnasts of being intimidating, verbally and psychologically abusive during workouts, and forcing them to train and compete despite them coping with serious injuries ... now try to imagine what your American compatriots were put through ... which haven't covered much, if at all, by the big media. You see, the teary stories are neither exclusive to commies, nor to the Chinese.
Those of you who hated the time difference in China will really hate the London games. It will lead to a lot less, if any, live action in primetime. http://www.usatoday.com/life/televi...24-bianco-olympics_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip More Olympic trials await NBC in London By Robert Bianco, USA TODAY For NBC, it's goodbye, Beijing; hello, London. The torch is out, the drums are stilled, and the network is off to Britain for the next Summer Olympics — and a new set of challenges. On the plus side, it won't face pressure to examine British politics or similar criticism for its shilling willingness to take everything in China at face value. And on the negative? Start with a far less adaptable time difference, which means you can begin rehearsing your prime-time tape complaints right now. What should NBC do to prepare? Here's a 2012 to-do list: • Pat yourself on the back. It's only fair to pause first for a compliment. Yes, NBC could have done more to bring China into the coverage, but its coverage of the events themselves was beautifully shot and for the most part sensibly packaged and presented. Throw in the options provided by cable and the Internet (which are only likely to expand), and you have the best overall Olympic experience ever provided by a U.S. network. • Package truthfully. We understand why you want to hide the results of events you're planning to air later. But don't lie to us and pretend the events haven't happened, and don't lie to the West with an on-screen "live" notice that applied only in the East. You have four years to find a way to remove that mark. You can do it. •Or maybe convince people live doesn't matter. In TV math, five hours is actually greater than 12. Events held in the morning in China fell into prime time in America, enabling NBC to have something live in most time zones every evening. But when it's prime time here, it's the middle of the night in London, and there's no way the British are hosting swimming finals at 4 a.m. Brace for tape. Will we see any major events in real time? Possibly, if NBC decides to show them twice: live in the afternoon, on tape at night. Don't expect that to happen, unless NBC can persuade advertisers to pay top dollars for a show that's not just taped, but a repeat. • Stiffen up your backbone. Like skating in the winter, gymnastics always seems to provoke controversies — and NBC once again seemed under-prepared for them. It took the network too long to comment on charges of favoritism and far too long to do any useful reporting on the age question. • Re-sign Bob Costas. It's hard to imagine a better NBC anchor choice; Costas seemed to become looser and freer as the Games went on. Plus, he interacted well with Mary Carillo and Cris Collinsworth, who made up for a lack of Olympic knowledge with an intimate knowledge of what it takes to be a world-class athlete. • And the answer is …What is the point of sticking a microphone in the face of some poor guy who just lost a medal and asking him how he feels? And stop using microphones to snoop on team huddles, as NBC did at the gymnastics events. It's creepy. And very un-British.
Just because it may no longer resemble a communist country does not mean it isn't one. Like I said, look at the record of communist countries that have had what I mentioned. You're right, China did not have a record of doing well at the games and has done well in a very short period of time. You don't expect me to know what? So South Korea's government takes athletes as young as three and thrusts them into sports academies? Threaten their income if they don't compete? Don't allow them to see their families for years? Etc. etc. etc. That's what I am talking about. Grueling training is one thing but like I mentioned above threatening an athletes' income, taking and keeping them away from their families, coaches must guarantee gold for the athletes and teams. I haven't seen that.
Its not just Commie countries as during the diving competition they mentioned that Canada has a program to try to win more medals especially in the Vancouver Winter games. Austria has a program to develop downhill skiers from an early age so they can become Olympic champions.
Communism can mean a lot of different things and this is defined in books and reference sources. They're run by the communist the party of that country and have been for sometime. They have declared themselves a socialist republic, which is a branch of form of communism. Those two things right there pretty much say it. Like I said, some people regard China as a communist state and since the socioeconomic reforms of the previous decades others have not. Why don't you tell me what does not make them communist in your eyes?
So if Republican party changes their name to Communist party of America tomorrow that makes the US a communist country? LoL. Just because you are labelled a communist party does not mean you are following communist doctrines. Communism means no individual property rights where all resouces are shared among all citizens (at least that was the theory). Since Deng took over power in the late 70s, China have gone more and more down the road of capitalism and in many cases more of a pure capitalist country then the United States. The are no different than many other authoritarian nations around the world, but calling China now a communist nation is a big joke.
FYI, about my home country of MEXICO: This Olympic Games, there was no exception. Guillermo Perez and Maria Del Rosario Espinoza took GOLD (Tae Kwon Do) and Paola Espinosa with Tatiana Ortiz got a bronze (Synchronized swimming). I'm proud of my country.
The difference is the Republican party is not the official party of the United States. It is not the only party of the United States. It's not even the ruling party of the United States. The people rule in the U.S. not a party, remember that. Like I said, communism can take on different forms and meanings. Look it up. It really depends on how you define it I guess and if that's your definition then that is it. Some people still define China as communist and some don't and I stated that. Didn't I basically say that in my post sans the 'big joke' part?
The republican party thing is only an anlogy. So if Chinese communist party changes its name to Chinese democratic party and never change any thing else, everyone should be happy since it is no longer a communist party?
It was a bad one. Would it matter? Not if the socialist society was still the prevalent lifestyle. Like I said, communism has different means. It's a broad spectrum of politics just as any section of politics is. You're focusing way too much on the party statement I see. You haven't mentioned anything about the statement that they have declared the country to be as such in the constitution.
There are plenty of Authoritarian states which declare the ruling party(family) as the only legal ruling body, that doesn't make them communist, no one ever said Saddam was a communist while he was in power. You still haven't proven anything that made current China a communist state other than some legal names. Capitalism doesn't equal democracy.
I understand that but you must look at the social lifestyle of the country and a plethora of other things. I'm not saying the constitution declares the party, I'm saying the constitution declares China a socialist state/country, which I already stated was a branch of communism. I'm not trying to prove it but give you examples of how it can be assumed or thought or known that China is communist. Did I ever say that? Give me some of examples of how they are not communist??? Bet yet, tell me what you define the country as?
They government have privitized many state run companies and more are being privitized as we speak. The market force determine the price and production quantity of vast majority of the products on the market. China did not become the world's largest manufacturing base by using state planning for its manufacturing sector (which was the case before Deng took oever in 1978). There are less regulations in China, like the US at the beginning of last century for just about every sectors of the economy, I beleive there should be more regulations from food to drug to building codes etc (pure capitalism doesn't work in my view).
You're noting things that I have already stated. So what is China? What would you classify the government as?
