SPORTS

Winner: Whistle Blower Ma Ming

If it wasn’t for Ma Ming, the dark secret of the 11th Chinese National Games might never have been revealed.

Days before the event began, reports of match-fixing in the diving competitions formed a cloud over the National Games. This came after one of the judges, using the alias of Ma Ming, suddenly resigned on 9 October. 

The official reason for her departure was illness, particularly a heart condition, but domestic media reports told a different story. A day after quitting, the former head coach of Hunan’s provincial diving team told a Herald Union reporter: “I left early, not only because I am sick, but also because I'm fed up with the current National Games, the dark secret of the diving competitions. All of the gold medals are decided internally ahead of time."

Ma accused Zhou Jihong, head of the Chinese national diving team, of manipulating the referees and predetermining gold medal divers. To boost the legitimacy of her claim, she even forecasted four gold medallists before the competition began – all of whom won, exactly as predicted.

“Ma Ming is interesting because she’s someone who is willing to talk about the darker side of Chinese sports,” says David Yang, editor of the China Sports Review blog. “This match-fixing is really unhealthy for young athletes, and for all the people who care about sports in this country.”

Ma’s resignation means that at the very least, Chinese sports fans now know that divers are jumping off from different points, and will hopefully call on sporting officials to clean up their act.

Runner Up: Freestyle Phenom Zhang Lin

He’s being, unimaginatively, called ‘Liu Xiang in Water’, but Zhang Lin definitely deserves the title after becoming China’s first man to ever win a world swimming championship.

In July, the 22 year old Beijing native captured gold in the 800 metre freestyle at the World Aquatics Championships in Rome – annihilating Australian Grant Hackett’s four year old world record by about six seconds, with a time of 7:32.12. In 2007, Zhang – the first Chinese swimmer permitted to train outside the country – went to Australia to work with Hackett’s former coach Denis Cotterell.

But that’s still not enough for Zhang. The young swimmer’s eyes are set on Olympic glory after settling for silver at the Beijing Olympics, beaten by Park Tae-hwan of South Korea by a slim 0.58 seconds in the 400 metre freestyle.

“I hope through my years of effort I can make up for my regrets at the Beijing Games,” Zhang was quoted as saying in China Daily.

Bring on 2012.