Chinese Athletes Show Colorful Characters at Games

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, November 23, 2001

Chinese Athletes Show Colorful Characters at Games

When two women soccer players from the Chinese army whipped off their jerseys to reveal their sports bras in excitement at scoring a goal during a match, they caused a sensation at the ongoing Ninth National Games.

Scenarios like this bewildered the media covering the current quadrennial sports event here, who cheered the younger generation of Chinese athletes are showing more colorful, diversified characters in their performances.

A veteran reporter who has covered several national games recalled that years ago, the Chinese athletes who had won a title would unanimously expressed their thanks to their coaches. "They did not know to how express their own feelings, nor did they try to show any difference from others," he said.

They were even dressed alike, almost all in the green army uniforms. Women athletes looked similar to their male counterpartsnot only in dressing, but also in hairstyle and in the way to communicate with others.

Today, the athletes competing at the current national games fascinate those old-fashioned spectators in every way.

Beijing's tennis player Li Si who won the men's single at this national games, tossed his jersey up and revealed all his bonny muscles at his final victory.

Wang Xiaozhu, an archer from Jilin, kissed her husband Luo Hengyu in front of a big crowd after her win, a scene rarely seen before in the sports venues in a comparatively conservative country as in China, which has a history of centuries of feudalistic tradition.

Women basketball players no longer wear the dull bobbed hair and look boyish. They would do their hair as any girl may choose to do, trying to look as charming as possible.

Almost all the women athletes put on fashionable sports bras incompetition in the track and field events.

After Bai Jie and Li Nan of the PLA women's soccer team gave their sensational show, Shanghai's woman soccer player Pan Lina claimed she would probably follow suit if she could score for China in an Olympic or World Cup final.

The society has become more tolerant to such boldness.

The Chinese Football Association announced that they would neither advocate for nor object to this act of celebration.

And the media also cheered for such diversified colorful characters. As Fan Chunsheng, a reporter from Northeast China's Liaoning observed, behind these colorful characters the athletes "are demonstrating a youthful vigor and beauty of self-confidence, which is rooted in sporting."

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