Corruption scandal hits Chinese diving
Tuesday, 13th October 2009 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Quotes below are all translated from Chinese by a China Sports Today editor. The original Chinese source for this story is at Ce.cn (ChinaEconomic.net).China's national games haven't even officially started yet, but they are already the backdrop for an ugly scandal in one of the country's most treasured sports. According to domestic media reports, a diving judge resigned in the middle of competition, saying she could no longer take part in a competition that she asserts is a complete sham.
The official reason for her departure was illness, particularly a cardiovascular ailment, but the referee told Jiebao Lianmeng she was quitting because the competitions are fixed.
"I am leaving early, not only because I am sick, but also because I'm fed up with the shadiness in diving this year," said the referee, given the pseudonym of Ma Ming by the media. "To my surprise, all of the gold medals are decided internally ahead of time."
Did a corrupt system give Zhou Luxin one gold medal and rob him of another?
According to ChinaEconomic.net, on October 10 "Ma" told a reporter who she believed would win the next four gold medals in the national games. All of her picks turned out to be correct--He Chong in the men's 3 meters; Wang Hao and Hong Lai in the women's 10-meter synchro; Wu Xia and Chen Qinqin in the women's 3-meter synchro; Zhou Luxin in the men's 10 meters.
The woman behind the fixed results, according to "Ma," is Zhou Jihong, the head of the diving federation and deputy director for Chinese aquatics. According to "Ma," she has enough power to subtly let her wishes be known and then sit back and watch the results play out the way she designed.
In a national games press conference, Zhou insisted that the judge quit only because of illness and was quick to dismiss the allegations:
"Whether it's international competition, or Olympics, world championships, whatever, before the competition there are always predictions. It is normal for some of these predictions to come true."
In addition to the four results listed above, "Ma" also pointed to the men's 10-meter synchro event as an example of competition fixing:
"The men's 10-meter synchro final is an obvious example. Lin Yue [林跃] and Cao Yuan's [曹缘] performance was clearly inferior to Zhou Luxin [周吕鑫] and Wang Jiankai [王建凯], but the victory was awarded to Lin and his partner, because this competition was already decided, and it couldn't be changed. Lin Yue had a pulled abdominal muscle, so throughout the competition his performance was mediocre. In the preliminaries, he and Cao Yuan were only in sixth place. But on the day of the finals, Lin and Cao did a dive that was obviously not good, but they still got a score that was good enough for a win over Zhou and his partner."
Though "Ma" asserts that Zhou Jihong has the final say in meet results now, apparently she hasn't always gotten her way. In 2005, "diving prince" Tian Liang mounted a comeback of sorts at the National Games. After the 2004 Olympics in Athens, in which he won a gold and a bronze medal, Tian Liang—then the boyfriend of "diving princess" Guo Jingjing--was kicked off the national team for putting too much energy into commercial projects. The disgraced Tian Liang won a gold medal at the games, and according to "Ma," a 55-year-old veteran who worked that event, his win went against the wishes of Zhou Jihong.
Zhou Jihong
At the same meet, "Ma" also says that she and the other judges defied Zhou Jihong's orders in awarding the women's 10-meter synchro gold to a pair from Hunan, "Ma's" home province. "She said it was because of my officiating."
Asked for concrete evidence of the corruption, "Ma" replied:
"I don't have any concrete evidence. Because if she did this kind of thing, she'd have to talk to all of the judges, which would give the impression that she actually doesn't have too much influence. The scary thing is how if she so much as slightly reveals her intentions, someone will take care of everything for her. As an official at these national games, I have more than once heard another referee say: 'This gold medal the leader already decided must be given to so-and-so.' Currently in the Chinese diving world, only Zhou Jihong can make these decisions."
Zhou Luxin image: Xinhua
Zhou Jihong image: News.QQ
Tags: corruption, diving, National Games
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