Olympics.

The biggest story of the day here in Hong Kong has to be Liu Xiang pulling out from the 110m hurdles. Every headline of every newspaper was covering the story, and then there are people with tonnes of conspiracy theories saying that he withdrew because he was afraid to lose, or he was under the orders of the Politburo to withdraw because it is deemed too much of a lose-face thing if he did not win the gold medal, etc, etc… Sometimes I wonder, are there really so many conspiracies in this world? He’s injured, he has to withdraw, end of story – at least that’s for me. It’s a shame that we wouldn’t have the chance to see him grace the tracks this Olympics, but I guess things like that do happen, don’t they?

Shame that we can’t see Liu Xiang flying down the track this Olympics. But I’m sure he’ll be back.

And then there are some Singaporeans who are upset that Singapore won the silver medal in the women’s table tennis competition, citing that the players were all born in China so the medal really isn’t Singapore’s. I mean, how myopic can Singaporeans be! If they are so against people like Li Jiawei or Wang Yuegu to be representing Singapore, then why don’t they send their Singapore-born kids to play table tennis? And if that happens, they’d better keep their mouth shut if they get shut out by opponents 11-0, 11-0, 11-0 and not complain about our athletics being not up to standard. The whole deal is, when these foreign atheletes take up Singapore citizenship, I’m very sure they represent Singapore with all of their hearts. And this scheme works both ways – when the Singapore team is winning, people will be more interested in the sports, and subsequently increase their participation. Nobody would want to be associated with a losing team, would there? So I’m perfectly happy with Li Jiawei representing Singapore (she’s been in Singapore for the past 13 years already and people still choose to remember that she’s born in China rather than being trained in Singapore, FFS), and I think it’s an equally happy moment for me to see an athlete representing Singapore, regardless of where he or she may be born in, winning something for his or her adopted homeland.

Li Jiawei – winning the silver medal for Singapore in the women’s table tennis team competition. Kudos to her, Yuegu and Tianwei for bring home an Olympics medal. I’m sure Tan Howe Liang, the last Singaporean who’s won a medal in the Olympics Games, would be delighted as well.

Hey, did anyone even make noise about the Lions winning the Southeast Asian Football Championship twice in a row? Daniel Bennett weren’t born in Singapore, y’know. Or is it because Li Jiawei was born in China that’s why this lot of foreign-talent-bashers hate her so much?

To be absolutely honest, it’s really difficult to dislike Li Jiawei. She’s good in what she does (ranked 6th in the world), she’s cute and she’s born on the Singapore National Day – what more can you ask for?

Li Jiawei – just how can anyone not like her?
Image: Singapore Table Tennis Association