Bonnie Glaser, a China expert and managing director of the Indo-Pacific programme at the German Marshall Fund, agreed that for China, “the Olympics is a platform for great power competition.
“There is no doubt that Beijing wants to demonstrate its athletic prowess, especially relative to the US,” she said.
“It’s telling that a US swimmer, Katie Ledecky, was appropriately proud of her achievement of coming in third and winning a bronze medal, while a Chinese swimmer who won bronze was in tears, no doubt because she was bested by two Americans.”
When American sports superstar Ledecky won bronze in the 400m women’s freestyle – the first bronze of her celebrated Olympic career – she said she was “grateful” for a medal in “such a good field.”
Her smiles and cheerful demeanour contrast sharply with Chinese champion, Zhang Yufei, who wept after coming third to her American rivals in the women’s 100m butterfly.
“Perhaps I’ve pushed myself too hard,” Zhang, dubbed China’s ‘butterfly queen’, said. “I did feel a lot of pressure.”
Many on Chinese social media urged her not to cry. Others lashed out over the perception that Chinese swimmers have been subjected to an excessive number of drug tests and whether this has disrupted their performance.
No Olympic discipline has been more reflective of the charged political rivalries between China and the US and its allies than swimming and a long-running controversy over doping allegations against Chinese athletes.
The doping storm has overshadowed international swim races since the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) confirmed reports in April that 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for trimetazidine – a medication that increases blood flow to the heart – before the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
Wada accepted the Chinese anti-doping agency’s (Chinada) findings that the positive test was due to substance contamination and a World Aquatics audit concluded there was no mismanagement while an independent probe ruled there had been no favouritism.
But the handling of the issue has rattled top performing swimmers, who questioned the overall transparency of the anti-doping system ahead of the Games.
Caeleb Dressel, the American seven-time Olympic gold medallist, asserted he had no confidence in the case involving 23 athletes, while Australian breaststroke champion Zac Stubblety-Cook criticised a “failed system.” British star Adam Peaty went as far as to say, “there’s no point winning if you’re not winning fair.”