China Watch

In 2008, at the Beijing Olympics, the Ethiopian long distance women runners face fierce competition from China’s 10000M and 5000M runners. One of China’s hopes, 17 year old Xue Fei, is on display this week at the Asian Games. She is the reigning 5000M Junior World champion.

In addition to this 17 year old, the reigning 10000M champion is Xing Huina is also from China. In the past China has been a pain for Ethiopia's women. The 10000M women’s World Record is still held by the worm eating Junxia Wang of China, who in Atlanta '96 won gold the 5000 and was the silver medalist behind Portugal’s Fernanda Ribeiro leaving Gete Wami with a bronze at the 10000. Gete's bronze was the only medal the women won on the track that year.

Despite the Ethiopian clean sweep at the 2005 world championships, the Ethiopian women are not a lock at this event. China has a bag of tricks. The Chinese program is not squeaky clean. Last year the 2003 World Championship silver medalist and Athens 5000M Olympian Sun Yingjie failed a doping test and is now suspended. There are some that have always thought that there was something fishy behind the sudden dominance and quick disappearance of Chinese runners. In 1993 Wang Junxia came out of nowhere to break world records, in 3000M and 10000M and claimed it was the worms she eats that helped he. Her records haven't broken since she set them 13 years ago.

This article from last year sums up the mess in Beijing.

China has scored a sporting own goal, as its first rehearsal for Beijing's Olympic Games in 2008 descended into a farce of alleged match-rigging, bribery, unfair judging and doping scandals.
....
The scandals have highlighted how Chinese sport remains tainted by the corruption prevalent in the sporting systems of the former Soviet Union and East Germany.

Corruption in sports is always problematic and should never be tolerated because corruption makes for fertile grounds for performance-enhancing drugs to thrive.

Last October, Dick Pound, the head of the World Anti-Doping Agency in October summarized the problem before his visit to China.

China was among "many countries" that have been identified as sources of "performance-enhancing drugs that have been sent to other countries.

and he continued ...

An Olympic host country has the special responsibility, both at home and around the world to demonstrate its commitment to doping-free sport.

Now is the time for all countries, including China, to make sure that they have put into place programs necessary to remove doping from sport.

The pressure to win at home in 2008 is sure to exasperate the situation. Let’s hope China cleans up.