For Chinese athletes and those watching at home, the Paris Olympics are not just the ultimate sporting competition. It is a stage for great-power rivalry – with each Chinese success serving as proof of the West’s faltering dominance.
“White superiority has collapsed!” read a popular publish on Weibo after swimmer Pan Zhanle won gold in the men’s 100m freestyle – breaking the world record he had previously set – and Zheng Qinwen became the first Chinese player to win gold in an Olympic singles tennis event.
Pan and Zheng “jointly dug the grave of white supremacy,” the post declared, noting that swimming and tennis are typically the strengths of Europeans and Americans.
“The 100 m freestyle is like the crown jewel of swimming,” he wrote another Weibo user. “The world record was broken by a person with yellow skin, so they [Americans] they are really hurt by it.”
And when the Chinese swimming team broke the US’ 64-year reign in the men’s 4x100m medley relay on Sunday, nationalists saw it as further confirmation of the end of US dominance in society.
“Pan Zhanle came out of nowhere, like Usain Bolt in a swimming pool, and slapped Europeans and Americans in the face again and again,” says one of the leading Posts on Weibo celebrating the team’s victory in the relay. “How fortunate that our generation can witness our country and our ethnicity breaking the Western monopoly in various fields: economy, industry, technology and sport.”
In keeping with a long-standing ethno-nationalist tradition state narrative which frames China as a historical victim of an imperialist West that deserves its punishment, much of the Chinese public opinion expressed about the country’s victories in Paris so far appears to focus as much on the foreign losers as the Chinese winners – with an emphasis on the triumph over those who harmed China, especially the US
At the Paris Olympics, several incidents involving Chinese athletes – such as tennis champion Zheng being criticized by rival Emma Navarroa photographer accidentally breaking table tennis player Wang Chuqin’s paddle, and another who apparently had pushed Wang– have gone viral among Chinese social media users, who interpret them as attempts to disrespect or sabotage China.
This perceived dynamic has been most prominent in swimming events, where Chinese athletes have complained of being unfairly vilified by allegations related to a doping scandal and of being snubbed by hostile peers in Paris.
Pan described his historic 100m freestyle win as “revenge for an insult”, claiming Australian silver medalist Kyle Chalmers blatantly ignored him when he tried to say hi before the race (Chalmers denied doing this and later said that fixed things) and that the US team threw water on the Chinese coach (observers called the accusation “doubtful”). “It felt like they were looking down on us,” said Pan.
Your words he was viral and were met with an outpouring of support on Chinese social media. “It’s a world record set under their indignant gaze!” he wrote a Weibo user. “Pan Zhanle used his action to slap them hard!”
“In the face of external skepticism, as well as disrespect and arrogance from foreign athletes, Pan Zhanle responded by breaking the world record in the final,” said Chinese media outlet The Paper. posted on Weibo.
As for the doping scandal, in which a third of China’s Olympic swimmers are involved, the athletes have maintained their innocence and their supporters condemn the accusations as a smear campaign by the West.
Wang Guan, host of state media China Global Television Network, wrote on Weibo that the “Western sporting sphere” was trying to “kill our reputation” with the media coverage of the doping scandal. “International outreach efforts also apply to sport,” he said. “We can never lose this battle.”
Some athletes, who have undergone rigorous drug testing, have also suggested that the doping allegations made against them are politically motivated. Breaststroke world record holder Qin Haiyang, who tested positive for the banned heart drug trimetazidine (TMZ) ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, he said that the tests were a conspiracy by European and American teams to “disrupt our preparation rhythm and destroy our psychological defense”.
“Why are Chinese athletes questioned when they swim fast?” Chinese swimmer Zhang Yufei, who also tested positive for TMZ in 2020, asked at a press conference last week, after winning the bronze medal in the women’s 200m butterfly. “Previously, when the great [Michael] Phelps won seven, eight gold medals, why didn’t anyone dare question him?” (Phelps, in fact, was the target of doping accusations during his career, including for from him rivals.)
Zhang’s comments were reshared by a state-run newspaper Global Timeswho criticized the “double standards” defended by Westerners.
The general feeling of grievance among Chinese social media users has even turned into conspiracy theories that it is the US swimmers who are actually doping.
China, which has invested heavily in athletic development, it has enjoyed decades of Olympic success, consistently ranking among the countries with the most gold medals (alongside the US and UK). But even as Chinese athletes in Paris have made new strides in sports traditionally dominated by Westerners, a sense of injustice and the isolation they have been forced to overcome continues to hang over Olympic discourse.
“Some Western media have always tried to portray China as a strict authoritarian country lacking freedom and fun, and that the Chinese people are not nice at all,” a statement said. article published this week in Global Times“but Chinese Gen Z athletes tell the opposite story in Paris, breaking prejudices and lies that circulate in the West.”
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