- 31 Jul 2012 15:48
#14020018
I agree, I think that anyone that is chosen by the government to train in a specific area will gladly do it.
1) Unlike in the west, there is a lot of nationalism in Asia, so representing your country like that would be a huge honor.
2) It's not like you can make a good living easily in China, so this could be your ticket out of the ghetto. Not everyone gets to become educated as easily as you could in the west (if you actually put in the effort, which so many don't).
I agree, so it's not coercion by the government entirely, but these people do not get to pick the sport they will train in. They are assigned based on their abilities. Whereas in the west, the athletes generally choose the particular sport as a child and weren't assigned to it (well, unless they have shitty parents that force them into a particular sport, but the point is, it's not an institutionalized thing like it is in some Asian countries). In the end, I don't think it matters all that much, but I think the assigning people to sports method is a little cheap. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that countries like NK or China shouldn't be allowed to do that, but I can't be convinced that doing that is in the spirit of the games. After all, the games are supposed to be apolitical, and if the government is cherry picking and trying to build up some sort of super national team, then the country is obviously viewing the games as some sort of way to make a political statement, which is against the spirit of the games.
I wonder how much it requires forcing in the end, considering that a career as a national athlete targetting the olympics must be quite an opportunity for an individual in a country like China.
I agree, I think that anyone that is chosen by the government to train in a specific area will gladly do it.
1) Unlike in the west, there is a lot of nationalism in Asia, so representing your country like that would be a huge honor.
2) It's not like you can make a good living easily in China, so this could be your ticket out of the ghetto. Not everyone gets to become educated as easily as you could in the west (if you actually put in the effort, which so many don't).
I agree, so it's not coercion by the government entirely, but these people do not get to pick the sport they will train in. They are assigned based on their abilities. Whereas in the west, the athletes generally choose the particular sport as a child and weren't assigned to it (well, unless they have shitty parents that force them into a particular sport, but the point is, it's not an institutionalized thing like it is in some Asian countries). In the end, I don't think it matters all that much, but I think the assigning people to sports method is a little cheap. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that countries like NK or China shouldn't be allowed to do that, but I can't be convinced that doing that is in the spirit of the games. After all, the games are supposed to be apolitical, and if the government is cherry picking and trying to build up some sort of super national team, then the country is obviously viewing the games as some sort of way to make a political statement, which is against the spirit of the games.
Last edited by Rancid on 31 Jul 2012 22:07, edited 2 times in total.
I can think of 11780 reasons Trump shouldn't be president ever again.
Nationalism is rampant in the west. In many of Asia's developing societies, people don't have time to chant nationalist slogans, they have to get food into their bellies.
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