Who's In?

This news from Xinhua on the Chinese gold-medal winning women's quad kept me captivated. I thought I would share. It feels like it should be presented in a big, heavy-paged fairy tale book. With gilt-edges and illuminated pages. Partly it's the poetic way the two languages meet, and partly it's the fatefulness of each person's place in life that comes across, as opposed to the individual drive of will and zeal that you get from American athletes (or reporters).

For example:

After being engaged in rowing, Jin almost had no time to spend with her family members.

    "After I entered the national team in 2003, I have had only ten days each year to spend with my family," recalled she.

and

    "We finally chose Zhang rather than Feng Guixin due to Zhang's daring spirit," said Zhou Qinian, head coach of sculling group of Chinese rowing team.

Happy olympic times, all!

Check out friend Mary's blog, 50 Eggs. She posts about the recent New York Times article on the Chinese rowing program (China is going full-tilt after sports that offer multiple medals). Featured prominently is Igor Grinko, a former Soviet, then former U.S. sculling coach now a head coach in China. Many of my former rowing teammates rowed under him when he was coaching U.S. national team sculling prospects in Occoquan, Virginia, starting a couple of years before the 1992 Olympiad. It was a somewhat uncomfortable fit all round, but he was a coach with proven success, and there were high hopes here.

Mary has some personal experience with Igor. And she respectfully pulls no punches. He replies! Fascinating! 

What do you think? Is China doping its athletes? Did the Easties do it back in the day?