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China news tagged with: sports (77)

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China’s Shen and Zhao Win Pairs Gold

Chinese skaters won the pairs gold and silver medals in Vancouver today, for the country’s first-ever gold in figure skating. From AP:

China’s Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo have won the pairs gold medal at the Vancouver Olympics, just ahead of countrymen Pang Qing and Tong Jian.

Germany’s Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy get the bronze.

It was an error-filled night, and only the last two couples showed the brilliance an Olympics demands.

See also “What’s it like to train with China’s skating champs?” from CNN.
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- February 15, 2010 10:37 PM
China’s Football Chief Held In Matchfixing Probe

Reuters reports on the latest troubles of China’s beleaguered football association:

Nan Yong, who took over as head of the CFA one year ago, was taken away by a police investigative group who were probing a series of matchfixing scandals, Xinhua news agency reported on its website (www.xinhuanet.com.), citing Ministry of Public Security officials.

CFA vice president Yang Yimin and Zhang Jianqiang, who was formerly in charge of referee arrangements, were also taken in by police, the newspaper added. Zhang now oversees women’s soccer at the CFA.

The three were questioned by police to “clarify some facts in several important cases of football gambling and illegal manipulating domestic football league games by using business bribery,” the Xinhua report said.
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- January 21, 2010 1:54 PM
China Shows Red Card To Football Match-fixing With Over 20 Arrests

From guardian.co.uk:

China has launched a crackdown on match-fixing and corruption in football with the arrests of more than 20 sports officials, including the president and two coaches of a team owned by Sheffield United.

Zhang Weizhe, the coach of its Hong Kong-based offshoot, and two other men linked to the Yorkshire club are suspected of buying promotion, bribing referees and using club funds for private business.

The three men were arrested in a crackdown on one of the world’s most scandal-plagued leagues after China’s president, Hu Jintao, called for a clean-up.
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- January 1, 2010 4:22 PM
Manipulation is an Affront to Fairness

At his blog, Tim Hathaway translates a Southern Weekend piece by Li Haipeng on fairness in Chinese sports:

There were ripples outside the pool this year at the conclusion of the National Diving Competition. One national A level judge who was once the head coach of the Hunan diving team stormed out of the judges area and spoke to the media. He said all 12 gold medals had been decided beforehand and the man responsible is Zhou Jihong (周继红), the assistant director of the National Aquatic Sports Center and the man in charge of the national diving team. This judge also predicted who would win the last four gold medals and two days later he was proven correct.

It stands to reason that the identity of this whistle blower alone is enough for people to take him seriously. It should be enough to turn this allegation of fraud which occurred in plain sight into a major news story. However, thus far it has been nothing but a storm in a teacup. There has been no substantive impact to speak of.

As of yet we have not seen any evidence of a regulatory body conducting an investigation. Unless Zhou Jihong’s statements are a complete fabrication, the official response has been lacking. It is possible that they are just a bit slow and that some offices are just a bit behind the times. However, there is another possibility which is a cause for concern. There may be some who hope this will just blow over so they won’t have to take responsibility. But if one matter is left unresolved, there will be a hundred more. With this in mind, a thorough investigation is both fundamental and necessary.
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- October 22, 2009 3:44 PM
China Anxious for Olympic Transformation

The Washington Post looks at the future of rugby in China if it is accepted as an Olympic sport:

Rugby would immediately attract central government funding and, more importantly, become a sport at China’s quadrennial National Games, which in turn would lead to the establishment of teams in most of the country’s 31 provinces and regions.

“If rugby manages to get into the Olympics there will inevitably be a great development in China,” Zheng, China’s head coach, told Reuters in his office in a scruffy building at the China Agricultural University.
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“The state will pay more attention to it…so rugby can enjoy a quick expansion all over the country as the sports schools’ provincial teams will be launched one after another.

“And we will eventually see professional players being produced by the state sports structure.”
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- September 7, 2009 9:54 PM
China Relaxes Romance Ban on Table Tennis Champion

After a probationary period of 5 years, China’s table tennis sports officials are allowing Wang Hao, the men’s singles world champion, to date a fellow athlete. From The Guardian:

After years of punishing training and sacrifice, China’s table tennis star Wang Hao has finally been rewarded – not just with the world No1 spot, but with the right to have a girlfriend.

Sports officials have decreed the 25-year-old player can date a fellow athlete, local media have reported, five years after he fell foul of a ban on romance.

[...]Wang’s new girlfriend, Peng Luyang, is a former national champion. Table tennis officials, said to be among the most conservative in China’s state sports system, may hope that she will prove a stabilising influence on him.
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- September 1, 2009 8:38 PM
In China, a Rocky Ascent for Basketball

While the NBA enjoys immense popularity in China, the local league isn’t enjoying the same success, according to the New York Times:

With 1.3 billion potential fans, China is increasingly seen as a financial promised land for N.B.A. stars through endorsement deals, and the league itself has established a robust organization here valued at $2 billion.

But China’s own professional league, the Chinese Basketball Association, has hardly enjoyed a smooth ascendance alongside this country’s basketball boom. American players and agents describe broken contracts, unpaid wages, suspicions of game-fixing and rising resentment toward foreign players. Several players have left China after failing to receive paychecks. Last month, the league announced that it lost $17 million last season, which ended in May.

Players and coaches in China’s professional league said problems escalated last season after the association loosened salary and court-time restrictions on foreign players, part of an effort to heighten the game’s appeal to China’s growing N.B.A fan base and to bring in more lucrative sponsorship deals. The association also hoped the prowess of imported players would help bolster China’s basketball prospects for the 2012 Summer Olympics.
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- July 22, 2009 7:27 PM
Beijing, in Snub to Taipei, Boycotts a Sports Ceremony

From New York Times:

China boycotted the opening of the 2009 World Games on Thursday night, apparently as a snub of the host, Taiwan.

Taiwan is hosting the World Games at the port city of Kaohsiung. Some 4,800 athletes from 105 nations will compete, according to the event’s official Web site.

Aurora Yang, from the Kaohsiung Organizing Committee Media Liaison Office, said by telephone that 77 mainland Chinese athletes had completed the application process for competing in seven sports, including fin-swimming, boules and water-skiing. But none of them showed up for the opening ceremony.

“We don’t know why they didn’t come, and we didn’t get any official announcement, so we can’t comment,” Ms. Yang said.
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- July 17, 2009 2:41 AM
China Investors Make Deal For Stake In NBA Cavaliers

From AFP:

Cleveland Cavaliers majority owner Dan Gilbert has signed an agreement to sell a minority stake in the National Basketball Association team and its arena to a group of Chinese investors.

A Chinese group led by Huang JianHua, a Chinese businessman known as Ken Huang who has a reputation for linking US and Chinese companies, is in position to obtain up to 15 percent of the Cavaliers.

The deal must still be approved by league owners but Len Komoroski, the Cavaliers’ team president, said Sunday the team was approached by the Chinese group and called the venture “an exciting new opportunity.”
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- May 25, 2009 8:35 PM
China Calls Up Its First Black Athlete

Volleyball player Ding Hui (丁慧) is attracting much attention for being China’s first prominent black athlete. From Telegraph:

Ding Hui, who is affectionately nicknamed Xiao Hei, or Little Black, by his team mates, was included in the national team’s new 18-man training squad.

The son of a South African father and a Chinese mother, Ding is expected to play a key role in China’s push for gold at the London Olympics in 2012.

However, despite the fact that he was born in China and only speaks Mandarin and his city’s local dialect, his elevation has stirred up some racial prejudices among his countrymen.

[...] Mr Ding told the Shanghai Wenhui newspaper that “people seem to care more about my heritage and appearance, but all I want to do is to play good volleyball”. [Photo via Sohu]
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- April 15, 2009 9:21 PM
Liu Isn’t Rushing in Return to Track

Liu Xiang, China’s great hurdling hope at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, was at the track recently, but he wasn’t competing. From The Wall Street Journal:

This was Mr. Liu’s second public appearance since returning to China after three months in the U.S., during which he underwent surgery for the injured foot that forced him to pull out of the Beijing Olympics last summer.

Last month, Mr. Liu made his debut on the political stage in Beijing when he attended the meeting of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, of which he is a member.

The 25-year-old hurdler is said to be recovering quickly and recently resumed his training in Shanghai. Many Chinese have expressed sympathy for him and eagerly await his return to the track, but others say his moment has passed, according to this Chinese-language report from the official Xinhua news agency.
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- April 13, 2009 9:02 PM
Thousands of Chinese Athletes Faking Ages in Guangdong

As a follow-up to reporting on the Olympics about questions over gymnasts’ true ages, it has now been reported that Guangdong Province has found that thousands of youth athletes have faked their ages in order to compete. From Reuters:

The result showed 3,000 were older than they claimed, 2,000 of whom were no longer eligible for any youth sport and 1,000 who should have competed in different age categories. Ye said 16 athletes in one event had faked their age and the worst offenders were up to seven years older than they were allowed to be.

Funding follows success in China’s state-run sports system so officials at city and provincial level have long been suspected of using overage players to help them win tournaments.

China was accused of adding years to the age of two gymnasts so they would be eligible to compete at last year’s Olympics after media reports indicated the gold medallists might be younger than 16.
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- March 12, 2009 12:56 PM
China Wheelie Promo Video

Vimeo.com carries a short video by Rob Luxton documents his journey in China. His video introduction is as below:

Rob Luxton’s adventure on a three wheeled recumbent tricycle will take him 25,000km all around China, passing through every province on the mainland. The expedition will also help raise awareness and money for two Charities. Sowers Action and Care For Children . Both dedicated to improving the lives of children in poor areas throughout China. Beginning near Hong Kong the journey is estimated to last two and half years taking him from busy cities to remote mountain villages, deserts to great plains, deep lush valleys to the the scary heights of the Tibetan plateau and finally into the jungles of the South, before returning to Hong Kong in August 2009.

China Wheelie Promo Video from rob luxton on Vimeo.
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- February 28, 2009 9:57 AM
NFL Struggles to Gain Ground in China

American football is the latest sport to try to make a foray into the Chinese market. But the Los Angeles Times reports that the NFL is having a hard time spreading the message, as was made evident during viewings of the recent Super Bowl:

Although the Super Bowl was broadcast nationwide by state-run CCTV, Chinese authorities put it on a 30-minute delay, so organizers of the NFL party piped in a live feed from a Philippine satellite broadcaster. And though local fans were enthusiastic, they frequently stared blankly at TV screens during complicated penalties and on-field rulings.

“The NFL has a lot of work to do in China,” said Hong Liu, a 50-year-old Pittsburgh Steelers fan from Beijing who began following the sport while attending college in western Pennsylvania.

The NFL’s struggles in China have come despite an increasingly affluent youth culture hungry for international sports, and the league’s major push, begun in 2003, to make China its fifth foreign target market, after Britain, Japan, Canada and Mexico.

In December, the NFL announced it was suspending plans to play a preseason game in China.
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- February 7, 2009 7:20 PM
NBA in Joint Venture to Build Arenas in China

The NBA has launched a plan to help build 12 new arenas throughout China. From AP:

NBA commissioner David Stern did not say when the plan would be starting, or where the buildings would be located.

“We weren’t going to start construction in the next couple of weeks,” Stern said at a joint news conference with AEG president and CEO Timothy J. Leiweke. “We anticipate that in a relatively short order we will have laid out a road map of a dozen buildings or so throughout China.”

Leiweke said it could take decades to complete the project.

“We think of this over the next 20 years, not the next year or two,” he said, adding some would be new arenas and others would be created by renovating existing facilities.
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- October 12, 2008 9:24 PM