As hosts of the world's largest sports rally, the Chinese have transcended from their national sentiments to value sportsmanship and extend heartfelt welcomes and congratulations to every Olympian, regardless of their nationality or race.
Under the "One World, One Dream" theme of the Beijing Olympics, people have stopped distinguishing "us" from "them" and have heartily celebrated every miracle and regretted every failure.
In a more open attitude, Chinese spectators have been cheering for both domestic and foreign players, and have extended friendly gestures to their former heroes who now represent foreign teams. They stood up to applaud former Olympic fencing champion Luan Jujie, who now represents Canada, and made the U.S. women's volleyball team coach Lang Ping, the beloved "iron hammer" of the Chinese team 20 years back, feel at home when her team met the host team in a preliminary game on Friday night.
Out of their respect for the true heroes, Chinese spectators marveled at Usain Bolt's stunning speed when he sprinted the men's 100-meter in a record-breaking 9.69 seconds to win the Olympic gold on Saturday night. "So how fast on earth can human beings actually run?" many people gasped.
Yet out of respect for the Olympic spirit, some also criticized the Jamaican for slowing down at the end to check if he was still ahead and punch his chest in joy in front of some 91,000 spectators. "I was just having fun, that's me," the 21-year-old Bolt had said.
"But you could have done better," said a Chinese Internet surfer, whose opinion was echoed by many others. "You could have made it at 9.60 seconds."
(Xinhua News Agency August 17, 2008)