You’d imagine if your country had both finalists in an Olympic competition you’d be chuffed about having gold and silver wrapped up, and would just say “may the better man/woman win”. Not so in China, by all accounts, after Chen Meng met Sun Yingsha in the women’s table tennis final.
The pair have fans that might be described as the “ultra” kind, so there’s no love lost, Sun the more popular in the country; Chen, according to Reuters, dividing opinion. So when Chen beat Sun in the final all hell broke lose on the Chinese social media platform Weibo.
More than 300 accounts were banned for “inciting conflict” during and after the final, and more than 15,000 posts were deleted because they were a touch on the angry or rude side.
To top it all Beijing police arrested a 29-year-old woman suspected for “defamatory” posts on Weibo after the final, and while not revealing what she had actually written they accused her of “maliciously fabricating information and blatantly slandering others, causing a negative social impact”.
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And you thought table tennis was only a game?
Gong goes to gutsy Gibson
The gutsiest Olympic performer on Tuesday? You’d have to hand the gong to American diver Alison Gibson who somehow persisted in her competition despite causing no little horror, not least to herself, when her feet crashed into the springboard during her first dive in the preliminary round of the 3-metre competition.
Naturally, after that calamity her entry in to the water wasn’t too elegant, the judges not displaying a huge amount of humanity when they awarded her zero points.
But the trooper that she is she kept going, completing her four remaining dives. But just like in Tokyo she finished last.
“I hit my heels and my feet on the board. I have cuts along the sides. And then I bruised my right heel pretty good, but I was determined to keep going,” she said, her cuts still raw on both feet. “I definitely was in pain.”
Warrior.
Something fishy going on at the Olympic Village
How have the catering company used for the athletes’ Olympic Village taken British swimmer Adam Peaty’s complaints about its food, specifically his claim that, gulp, “people are finding worms in the fish”? Not too merrily.
“There has been zero proof of the truthfulness of this statement, which obviously raises a rather serious allegation,” they told TMZ Sports. “There is no information that’s been able to provide validity to this sensationalist claim.”
They added that no athlete made any claim about finding worms in their fish, suggesting that Peaty’s allegation was a cod.
Müller horsing around before training
Bayern Munich are back in pre-season training, but their coach Vincent Kompany might have noticed that one of his player’s minds wasn’t quite on the job on Tuesday. But Thomas Müller should have been forgiven for letting his thoughts stray to Versailles where the final of the Olympic showjumping was taking place.
That’s because he is the co-owner of the horse that won gold in the jump-off, Checker 47 ridden by Christian Kukuk. “Dear Christian,” Müller wrote on Instagram, “hats off, I am absolutely thrilled. Now let it rip, let’s celebrate.” You’d worry that Müller wasn’t in great nick in Wednesday’s training either.
Word of Mouth
“There are no more mountains, that’s it. I’m done now. The next chapter is going to be my life chapter.” – Kellie Harrington. Sporting mission(s) accomplished.
By the Numbers: 1,371,400
The peak television audience for Kellie Harrington’s golden fight, 83 per cent of those watching TV at the time. What the heck were the other 17 per cent looking at?
