At the first match of the Chinese women’s hockey team, against the Czech Republic, last week, there was more atmosphere and noise on the benches of the two teams than in the public of a few hundred Chinese who came to attend the confrontation. The crowd leader was in vain to stir and shout, the public seemed to remain cold to the show despite an honest performance of their color bearers.
Earlier in the day, the few dozen people who had come to attend the mixed curling had shown themselves a little more animated, applause wisely when their team made a good move.
It was a whole different story on Monday evening (Monday morning, Eastern time) at the Palais Omnisport in the capital, where the 500m women’s and 1000m men’s events in short track speed skating were held. Fired up after watching their mixed relay team win gold two days earlier, the hundreds of Chinese who filled all the available spots in this era of social distancing didn’t need a crowd leader. Whenever one of their athletes overtook or took the lead in a race, they could be heard letting out cheers and cheering loudly. If he was, on the contrary, the victim of a collision or an overtaking that was a little too muscular for their taste, they would bring down a heavy silence in the enclosure. The announcer even had to call to order some over-enthusiastic spectators to stop distracting the athletes by shouting encouragement just before the starting signal.
A good player, the public also applauded the three foreign skaters, including Quebecer Kim Boutin, who preceded her favorite in the women’s 500m final. But he exploded with joy when the Hungarian who believed he had won the other final was disqualified and the gold and silver medals eventually went to the country’s two sons.
Finally, it seems that the Chinese like contact sports on ice. But not the one we usually think of.
This report was financed thanks to the support of the Transat International Journalism Fund.The duty.
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