Browse Sections

• Education
• Special reports

Our man at the Beijing Olympics - 11/8/08

Matthew Davis
14/ 8/2008

BADMINTON is basically a national sport in China. In Britain there are 96 players in the elite senior and junior structures – in the Chinese equivalent there are three million.

I don’t know how Britain’s Athens silver medallists Gail Emms and Nathan Robertson expect to compete against the home favourite and partisan crowd.

Watching badminton at the Beijing’s University of Technology Gymnasium is a very noisy experience especially if there are any players wearing the yellow and red of China.

As I tried to watch Britain’s Andrew Smith play – I was distracted by the noise coming from court number one in the women’s doubles where Japan were taking on China.

I soon forgot about Smith and was transfixed by this epic encounter – I backed Japan – got to love the underdog.

The Chinese fans cheered every time their player hit the shuttlecock and it created a great sound effect to a thrilling match which the Japanese won 21-14 in the final set while Smith crashed out in the first round.

At these Olympics China is out to prove its sporting power to the world and top the medals table which three days in they are already looking like doing.

From archery to weightlifting they aim to dominate and the China Daily - the only English langauge paper - is filled with the stories of China’s triumphs and pretty much nothing else.

The country has a population of 1.3 billion so it is not surprising that they are expecting a truck load of gold.

Even swimmer Michael Phelp’s aim of eight gold medals plays second fiddle to a Chinese fencer.

The biggest draw of the games and biggest expected world wide audience for a basketball game was last night’s men’s basketball match between USA and China.

This was all anyone could talk about as China’s Yao Ming (I would say the most famous person in China, think the David Beckham of basketball but 7ft tall and you get the picture) led his team against the USA’s dream team.

Living in a hotel for the past week now makes me think I am turning into Alan Partridge. Our hotel seems to be evolving before our eyes as a new ‘service’ pops up every evening.

A few days ago a bar appeared in the lobby, this appeared out of nowhere and consists of two fridges filled with beer and two booths that have been temporarily installed.

It started shakily as our helpful waiter brought our beers to the table and then spilt them everywhere and dropped the bottles on the floor.

But they soon lifted the standards and the next night it was extended to take in the rest of the lobby, and flowers and flags appeared in vases on the table.

The bar now has a name aptly named “The North Lobby Bar” and even has a full price list.

To date it now has white cloths on the seats, now serves a variety of wine and champagne and one hotel resident even requested room service.

However the prices seem to go up each night dependent on who serves you and presumably as word gets around that there is a new place in town.

It is now a booming place, constantly full of journalists returning from work and surely it is only time before there is a guest list, red carpet and cocktail menu – they have hit on an Olympic gold mine.

And finally I think the award for longest name at the Olympics goes to Thai weightlifter Prapawadee Jaroenrattanatarakoon which must provide commentators with a mouthful.

Apparently she was told by a fortune teller that if she changed her name she would win gold.

And so the simply named Chanpim Kantatian took the advice and unbelievably clinched gold.