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In a news that has surprised absolutely no one, athletes from China and Eastern Europe are expected to continue to excel in the medal tally when it comes to those non-commercial, individual sports that former communist countries have traditionally dominated.
It’s said that at the heart of these sports is a certain ethos: starting in childhood, military-like discipline, a shitload of state-sponsored training and absolutely zero expectations of making a cent off any of your efforts.
Unlike their more commercially saturated counterparts, sprinting, swimming and team sports, which have long been dominated by athletes from the West, Africa and the Caribbean – the communist sports are treated as an opportunity to showcase a nation’s strength – rather than silly capitalistic attributes like ‘teamwork’ and ‘spirit’.
Diving, Weightlifting and Gymnastics have long been the preferred sport for athletes from countries with a communist past that either have either really long names, or really short names.
China, with its legendary state-run sports academies, has continued its reign in the diving events. While Eastern Europe, with it’s long soviet past of athlete academies and unorthodox supplement programmes, are likely to live up to their legacy weightlifting.
Both China and the Eastern bloc also both continue to be a constant threat to America’s success in gymnastics.
Cuba is technically included in this list of former-communist countries that put athletes to work from a young age, however, their chosen discipline is traditionally boxing. It’s a Cuban sporting past time that is rarely on show outside of the Olympics, as these athletes, and their doctors, do often seek the required permissions to take part in pay-per-view bouts with professionally sanctioned promoters in Vegas or Dubai.
It’s clear that in these sports, talent and passion will never be a match for militant youth training programmes, and the disproportionate populations of illegible young athletes to take part in them.
