Hi Olympic fans!
Record-setting comebacks, political scrutiny, and positive covid tests. What else would you expect from an Olympics held in Beijing during a pandemic? We’ve got all that for you, plus a look at the digital yuan’s lackluster rollout.
Here’s what you need to know
- Peng Shuai watched Eileen Gu win gold. The tennis player and freestyle skier, who both represent China, are under different kinds of scrutiny.
- The Women’s Tennis Association is still concerned about Peng, despite her appearances at the Games, interview with a French newspaper, and dinner with IOC president Thomas Bach.
- US figure skater Nathan Chen made a world record-setting comeback. After finishing in fifth place at the 2018 Olympics, the 22-year-old gave a top-scoring performance in the men’s short program that put him on track to medal.
- Team GB’s opening-ceremony attire—duffle coats and Chelsea boots—has been a big hit on Weibo. It’s not just sports apparel companies any more: Team USA had Ralph Lauren, while the Italians were in Armani.
- Russian Olympic hockey player Polina Bolgareva tested positive for covid. She had just played a game with Canada.
- Beijing is keeping rinks cold with natural refrigerants.
China’s cold-weather fans
US-born freestyle skier Eileen Gu was already adored in China even before the Olympics. On Tuesday, Gu, who chose to compete for China rather than the US, won her first gold. You can safely say that adoration is now in overdrive.
Chinese social media is ecstatic, with most of Tuesday’s trending topics about her win in the women’s big air skiing competition. At time of writing, #EileenGuwinsgoldmedal has been viewed nearly 700 million times on Weibo, while a post from state broadcaster CCTV news praising her as “the most extraordinary” received over 1.5 million likes.
If Gu, who is also a fashion model and will study at Stanford University, has been cast as China’s ideal daughter in these Olympics, another US-born athlete competing for China is experiencing the far harsher side of the country’s complex attitude towards the naturalized Chinese citizens who are helping the country raise its medal tally at the Winter Games.
California-born figure skater Beverly Zhu, who goes by Zhu Yi in China, has faced endless criticism after she finished last during the women’s short program team event on Sunday. Her stumble turned into a heavily viewed hashtag, #ZhuYifelldown, and Zhu has said that the online reaction played a role in her performance in the free skate event on Monday, which saw her break down in tears after falling twice. “What everyone said on the internet really affected me,” Zhu told state news agency Xinhua.
“Nothing succeeds like success. Gu is winning one gold medal already… China only had one gold medal from the last Winter Olympics, but it already has three currently. So of course, Chinese people, whether they are nationalist or not, are going to appreciate [Gu’s success],” said Dali Yang, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago.
A lukewarm coming out party for the digital yuan
The Olympics were supposed to be a great opportunity for China to showcase its digital yuan, the country’s sovereign virtual currency.
Instead, it’s skied a bumpy slope. China has adopted a “closed loop” system, which means the 10,000 participants of the event are walled off from the public to avoid the spread of covid, which in turn means foreign athletes and other visitors can only use the currency at the Games’ venues instead of trying it out in other scenarios.
Meanwhile, repeated warnings and concerns about the surveillance risks of the digital yuan from US politicians, including Marco Rubio, may have deterred some of those interested in the idea of trying the virtual currency. The fact that foreign iPhone users need to register a new Chinese Apple ID to download the digital yuan wallet app adds another layer of difficulty for its adoption.
It’s quite a tricky slalom to navigate, but Beijing is determined to push the use of the digital yuan. At the Olympics venues, Visa, cash, and the virtual currency are the only three available payment options, with China’s two mobile payment giants Alipay and WeChat Pay nowhere to be seen. But for now, few foreign athletes seem to have used the digital yuan, instead mostly opting for Visa when making payments. For Beijing, this could be yet another reminder that sweeping government power makes it easy to achieve goals at home, but it will always face an uphill battle when trying to convince the outside world to go along with its agendas.
How well do you know your Winter Olympics?
Pop quiz: What Winter Olympics featured the above mascots? The answer to this one: Sochi 2014. But you don’t need to know this level of detail to do well on our quiz (though we do recommend getting into ski ballet, our favorite bygone Winter Olympic sport).
❄️Here’s an easy one. Will Quartz be back in a few days with more fascinating Olympics facts? You bet. Want to get a fellow Olympic fan in on the action? Here’s where they need to go.
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