Chinese table tennis champion did not slam Olympic audience in post-match interview
- Published on August 14, 2024 at 06:27
- 2 min read
- By Carina CHENG, AFP Hong Kong
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"This is the reason I strongly supported Chen Meng and hoped she would win the championship, because there is a group of despicable Chinese people behind her," read a simplified Chinese X post on August 7, 2024.
The post features an image of Chen being interviewed after taking gold at the Olympics women's singles table tennis finals in Paris on August 3, in an all-China affair against world number one Sun.
Simplified Chinese subtitles on the image suggest Chen said: "Even when I won, no one cheered for me. I turned around and saw that the audience was silent, booing and giving me the middle finger."
The purported subtitles also suggest Chen accused Liu Guoliang, president of the Chinese Table Tennis Association, of "looking at her with disdain".
Chen was subjected to boos from spectators, while Sun -- who has a vast, adoring fanbase -- received enthusiastic cheers during the match.
Sun's fans subsequently attacked Chen online for apparently preventing Sun from setting a new record at the Paris Olympics for the fastest Grand Slam.
Beijing police said on August 4 that they had arrested a woman for posting defamatory comments online about athletes and coaches in the wake of the match, while social media platform Weibo deleted more than 12,000 posts and banned more than 300 accounts following the incident (archived link).
The same image of Chen's purported post-match comments also appeared in posts on X, Facebook and Threads.
However, Chen did not complain about her treatment during the interview.
Fabricated subtitles
A reverse image search on Google led to the original interview clip on YouTube, uploaded by Chinese state media CCTV's sports channel on August 7, 2024 (archived link).
The video is titled "Chen Meng: There is no loser in today's game" and Chen expresses her surprise at being able to win the game against the top-ranked Sun.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the image shared in the false post (left) and the CCTV video (right):
Nowhere in the video does Chen berate the audience. In fact, she says: "I am also very grateful to the audience who cheered for both of us here."
She also says that there was "no loser in this game" and that they had both tried their best.
The state-run China News Service also reported Chen saying the game had no losers and that both she and Sun deserved applause for taking gold and silver for China (archived link).
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