Let's celebrate Olympic spirit, not gold medals

After being obsessed with winning gold medals for decades, Chinese sports fans have begun to appreciate healthy competition among athletes, celebrate their speed, stamina and endurance, and marvel at their skills, acknowledge their hard work, and admire their desire to succeed. This change, especially evident at the ongoing Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, signifies a step toward separating sports from utilitarianism and accord priority to sportsmanship. This is a welcome development, for it indicates an attempt to restore the respect and glory of sports and athletes, which they so rightly deserve.

Instead of nasty criticism of athletes who do not win gold medals, netizens are now more likely to pass sympathetic comments on, and encourage, athletes or teams who fail to win a medal. Nowadays, seldom does one come across netizens lashing out at athletes for not meeting the fans' expectations.

Those who engage in fair competition at the Olympics deserve people's respect irrespective of whether they win or lose. A country that does not consider the number of gold medals won at the Olympics or world championships the only way to raise its global status is a confident country. As China marches toward realizing socialist modernization, it is focusing more on improving people's livelihoods and promoting the physical fitness campaign to make people healthier.

There are also other reasons for abandoning the worship of gold medals.

Many factors can impact an athlete's performance, and every competition comes with inherent uncertainties, especially at a mega sports event like the Olympics. Athletes cannot be expected to always be in the right physical and mental state to win gold. Even if they try their best, they might end up being medal-less. This is the simple truth people need to realize, and learn to accept failure, because no athlete competing in an event wants to lose or be on the losing side.

Besides, it is impossible for one country to excel in all sports disciplines. Countries that dominate in certain disciplines have invested years cultivating and training talents, and turning them into champions. That's why participation is more important than winning.

At times, the worship of gold medals could lead to irrational behavior. Athletes may try to find dishonest ways to win games, and spectators may indulge in acts that could hurt athletes, spoiling the international image of their country.

China has tasted the bitter fruit of gold medal worship. That's why it's now changing its attitude toward sports, by adopting a more healthy approach toward athletes and sports.

But this is not to say that people should abandon their desire to see their country's athletes winning gold medals at the Olympics or other big sports championships. Giving up gold medal worship is not giving up the desire and will to win. Take the Olympics motto "faster, higher, stronger and together". It encourages all participants to give their best performance and keep improving on that performance. If athletes stop pursuing gold medals, what's the use of holding sports competitions?

Athletes spend years training, suffer injuries and endure the stress to realize their dream of winning gold medals. But they should not be hauled over the coals for failing to do so. The athletes and their coaches deserve applause for winning medals, but their failures should not be used to hound them, because "they can do better next time".

But every athlete should have the fighting spirit, instead of believing that "no matter how badly I perform, spectators and fans will forgive me". Those who compete in a game with such an attitude look for excuses to hide their weaknesses.

Moreover, sports fans should not believe in the "only efforts matter" theory, because by doing so, they would be unfair to those athletes who strive to excel and emerge as winners.

Without the freedom to criticize, there cannot be true praise. Without worshipping gold medals, sports fans have the right to criticize athletes who do not give their 100 percent in a game and exhibit a negative attitude toward competition. The only thing that they should pay attention to is that the criticisms do not become verbal attacks or emotional catharsis against the athletes. The purpose of criticism should be to motivate athletes to perform better the next time even under pressure.

Refrain from both "gold medal worship" and the "only efforts matter" theory.

The author is a writer with China Daily.