Shout Out: Olympic Coverage

Just for the record, we have a number of talented colleagues covering the Games in Beijing. You can see their stories here, including this piece by Hannah Beech on the emotional triumph of the Chinese gymnastics team today. They’ll be contributing occasional posts from the games to this blog too. The Chinese gymnastics team were spectacular and doubly motivated. Not only were they in front of a home crowd but they’d lost at Athens (came fifth actually) when they were defending world and Olympic champions. That clearly rankled: almost to a man the gymnasts and coaches mentioned that fact in their TV interviews after getting the Gold. The depth of the emotion generated by this win was also evident in the fact that most of the competitors were openly weeping after they won and several still choked up while being interviewed. That’s pretty unusal in China, where public displays of emotion are considered bad form.