On the show this week, “Beardwatch” is back with a heartfelt apology from Mark to Haig (0:26). What can China take away from its dominance at the Paralympic Games (2:52)? Various factors contributed to this, including a fine performance from the Chinese team (3:35) and the absence of Russian and Belarusian competitors (4:15). But there’s more: top American Paralympian Oksana Masters implied a Chinese competitor was not “honest,” and we explain why (5:10), accusations of “classification doping” (6:35), and the surprise factor of the Chinese athletes, many of whom had not competed internationally prior to these Games (9:46).
Next, the wife of Viktor Ahn — a South Korean-born Russian short-track speed skater and coach of the Chinese team — got into trouble after her cosmetics company listed Taiwan as a country. Cue angry netizens in China (story on The China Project here) (11:10). These reactions are just so tiresome, but they’re not going away (12:00). Parallels between Hollywood movies and professional sports in China: the prospect of earning lots of money versus dealing with a very touchy superpower — is it worth it (14:05)?
Then we talk about a piece by Stephen Wade of the Associated Press about the outdated notion of political neutrality in sports in which he calls out the hypocrisy of the stated goal of separating sports and politics (16:58). The IOC and their sponsors say they like to focus on the athletes, not the countries, but if you take away the nationalist elements — such as the flags — then the Olympics as a concept are finished (18:48). A nine-year-old statement by IOC President Thomas Bach breaks Haig’s head (20:30), and will a Cold War mentality bring back real, as opposed to diplomatic, boycotts (22:20)?
