There is no level playing field for athletes in China. Instead, entire sports are run by corrupt administrators, as the case of the former boss of synchronized swimming makes clear, Chinese media have reported.
Several Chinese media outlets reported on Tuesday that the former director of the Synchronized Swimming Department under the General Administration of Sport of China (GASC) was detained on Oct. 30 for investigation on the charge of receiving bribes, citing leaked information from former colleagues and inside sources.
Yu Li, 59, had absolute authority in the circles of synchronized swimming before she retired. China’s media reports are vague about when she retired, although they agree in saying she did so before she was investigated for corruption.
The reports say she started to serve as the director of the Synchronized Swimming Department in 2002 and used to be a synchronized swimming athlete herself.
The trigger to Yu’s investigation is likely related to an incident at the 2013 National Games when a pair of synchronized swimming athletes refused to receive the bronze medal in protest against unfair scoring, according to Titan Sports, China’s most circulated sport newspaper.
The synchronized swimming athletes, Jiang Wenwen and her twin sister Jiang Tingting, expressed their strong disagreement with the scoring, saying their scores were held down throughout the competition.
They also pointed out that the Liaoning Team, which was from the host province and won the championship, were given an extra 2.2 points in the finals with the same set of actions the team used in the qualifying rounds but without significant improvement.
Four out of eight judges gave the exact same scores on all categories for the top three teams, the chance of which was described by the Chinese press as similar to winning the lottery.
The Jiang sisters hosted a press conference after the competition, announcing their retirement. “It was the darkest day in [our] sports career,” they said.
Although Yu wasn’t one of the judges of the competition, she was involved in arranging the scoring, after taking 50,000 to 60,000 yuan (US$8174-$9809) in bribes, an anonymous source told Titan Sports. The source indicated that “ironclad” evidence had been received from Liaoning Province.
After the information was leaked of Yu’s investigation, a number of Chinese reporters tried to verify the facts with the swimming center of GASC, but the staff refused to give any interview or confirmation.
