For the sixteen days of the Olympics I was immersed in all things China, and from the opening ceremonies to the close on Sunday the overall impression that was left with me was, “Man, that was a wee bit creepy!”

Sports Minister Liu Peng started the strangeness off when he sad, “To achieve Olympic glory for the motherland is the sacred mission assigned by the Communist Party central.”

Say what?

So far removed was I from the “red menace” since the fall of the Soviet Union, it was very distressing to be reminded, repeatedly and forcefully, that China still believes in all that communist nonsense.

Hey, I knew they were communist, but since annexing Hong Kong in 1999 and having seen how capitalism was creeping willy-nilly into their society, I didn’t think they were that communist.

Wrongo comrades!

It was reading the translations of the medal-winning athletes acceptance speeches that tipped me off to the true way of things.

“It is an honour to live up to the expectations of the people.” Or “The honour is not for me but for the motherland and her people.”

Nowhere was there anything about them as individuals. Where was the “me me me” stuff? Their celebrations lacked spontaneity, and most remarkably, showed very little joy. They just won a frikin’ Olympic gold medal – so where was all the jumping up and down?

It was all so preprogrammed – so disconcertedly rehearsed that it was like they had taken a course on how to react when they won – which I’m all but certain they had.

Curious, I did some research on what was going on and learned that after being awarded the games there was a mandate from on high in the party called Project 119. This was named after the number of medals available in sports where China was not a powerhouse like track and field, and most water sports like sailing, canoeing, rowing and swimming.

China set out to dominate all Olympic sports by throwing their national resources into turning their athletes into medal-winning machines. The first step they took was to hire the best coaches from around the world and bring them back to the motherland.

Not to train their athletes, but instead to train Chinese coaches, and once that training was over, they kicked the foreigners out.

Now, loaded for bear with knowledge, they sent their coaches abroad with video cameras and notepads to all the major sporting events to copy what the rest of the world was doing.

Next, they drafted their athletes from the 1.3 billion people available. Tall Chinese kids were sent to basketball camps if they wanted to go or not.

Small, slim, and preferably double-jointed children were chosen for gymnastics or diving academies – even if they couldn’t swim.

The LA Times reported on Lu Lu, a 20-year-old at the Xuanwu Sports Academy in Beijing. She said, “I wanted to be a ballet dancer, but they said ping pong was right for me.”

Chen Ruolin, a 15-year-old diver, was ordered to skip dinner for the year leading up to the games to keep her body as narrow as possible to minimize her splashes. She weighed 66 pounds.

Weightlifter Cao Lei was kept in seclusion during her training so she wouldn’t be distracted by her mother, who unbeknownst to her, was dying. They only told her after she had missed the funeral.

Her gold medal-winning reaction was telling. First came the programmed response: “I was excited and overjoyed because I won the seventh gold medal for Chinese weightlifting.”

Then the real-life response: She couldn’t stop crying after being asked why she failed in her world record-breaking attempt in the clean and jerk.

“I was distracted, I couldn’t focus, I thought of my mom,” she said through her tears.

There are many around the world who envy China’s medal haul. Three Olympics ago they were “also ran’s” when it came to taking home the gold. In 2008, on home turf, they won more than any anybody else.

Hope they are proud of that.

Cheers – Gavin McDougald – AKA Couch