Vicious Rants of an Angry Yellow Man

 Now that the Winter Olympics are over, I will give some final thoughts. 

China, as expected, did a great job of hosting and putting on a show.  Also expected, it got the "but" review from western media.  That is, the media will say things went well, but....For example NYT:  China Celebrates a Joyless Triumph.  USA Today:  The most controversial, most unwelcoming Olympics of our lifetime are now over.  So there were many articles such that nobody got COVID from the Olympics so China deserves credit but there was no fun, no interactions, too much trouble for the journalists etc.

But there were many accounts by athletes of them having great times and impressed with the Beijing organization.  Aaron Blunck, an American skier, praised China during a news conference saying what he read before coming here seems to be false.  Shortly after, he reported that his twitter account was suspended.  He thought that it was because his comments about China.  But the account was restored shortly afterward so I think it was most likely a glitch, not an American government effort to limit his speech as some in the Chinese media pointed out.

Only about five countries joined the American diplomatic boycott.  Then the U.S. requested dozens of diplomat passes to the Games.  I don't know why they requested them if you are boycotting.  I am sure the countries that follow our lead wonder too.  Why do the diplomats need to be there?  Maybe they are security forces to protect American athletes since Nancy Pelosi is worried about their safety if they speak out against China!  It seems that the American athletes only have nice things to say.  And even if they don't, China is not stupid enough to harm them when the whole world is watching.  I think Pelosi have more important things than that to worry about in our own country.

Eileen Gu won two gold and one silver, becoming the biggest star for China.  People are calling her traitor or at least asking if she is still American.  Bill Maher said that it is not racist to ask if she is still an American.  Well, he and others did not ask if Zoe Atkin, an American competing in the same event as Gu, is still an American after she represented Britain in Beijing because her father was born in Britain.  Nobody is asking if Kailee Humphries, the two time gold medalists for Canada but won a gold for the U.S. in Beijing, is still a Canadian.  There are many instances of athletes representing a country that is not where they were born or live.  Nobody ever question their loyalty except for Gu.  So you tell me if this is racist or sinophobia.

As an aside, Bill Maher also criticized John Cena for apologizing to his Chinese fans in Mandarin (he speaks Mandarin very well) because he mistakenly called Taiwan a country.  Well, Maher should know that Taiwan is not recognized by about 190 countries in this world as a nation, including the U.S.  So Cena is right and Maher should apologize to Cena.

The figure skating controversy is very sad.  The Russian girl is 15.  I am sure she didn't take those medication by choice.  She would have no idea what they are.  The risk vs benefit is very high.  It would be malpractice for any doctor to prescribe these for a young girl.  Whoever put her up to it should be in jail.  So the name changes from the USSR to the Unified Team to Olympic Athlete of Russia to ROC but the cheating continues.  Not only that, you see how the coaches treat the girls with whole world watching.  I can't imagine what they do to them in training when nobody is watching.

Mikaela Shiffrin is a class act.  After a disastrous Olympic, she talked to the press with politeness and humility without blaming anyone or feeling sorry for herself.  I am sure she will bounce back and continue her path of becoming the GOAT.

I will stop now but lets see how the press coverage for Italy in 2026 will go.  During the first big wave of COVID in 2020, Italy was suffering the worst.  It had to go to complete lockdown, same as China at that time.  The New York Times, on the same day, published articles on the two countries' response.  The Chinese effort was labeled draconian.  The Italian effort was hailed as heroic.  Need I say more?