Chinese Diver Wins Gold, Is Finally Told That Her Mother Has Cancer And Her Grandparents Died A Year Ago [China]

Wu Minxia took gold in the 3m synchronized springboard, and in doing so became the first woman in history to win three consecutive Olympic golds. Sustained success like that comes at a price—in Wu's case, a life entirely devoted to training, cut off from the outside world.

After her gold, Wu's father admitted to the Shanghai Morning Post that he had been hiding some bad news from her: both her grandparents had died over a year ago, and her mother had battled breast cancer for eight years.

"Wu called us after her grandmother died, I gritted my teeth and told her: ‘everything's fine, there aren't any problems','' Wu's father Wu Jueming told the paper. Wu's parents found such lies were "essential'' to ensure their daughter could keep focused on her training, the Shanghai Daily said. "We never talk about family matters with our daughter,'' the father said.

Wu's life seems to reinforce all our worst stereotypes about the Chinese Olympic program. Now 26, Wu began attending daily diving camp at six years old. At 16, she left home to live in a government-sponsored training facility, where she rarely saw her family, didn't attend school—didn't do anything but dive, all day, over and over again for this last decade.

Her parents only kept up with her life by following her Weibo account, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter. Said her father,

"We've known for years that our daughter doesn't belong to us any more."

Her parents even traveled to London to watch her compete at the Olympics, but either chose not to or weren't allowed to meet her until after she competed. The extent of their correspondence: a text message to let her know they had arrived safely.

Her mother's cancer is now in remission, but Wu's story has reportedly reignited discussion in China over the country's dogged commitment to athletics, at the expense of all else. But Wu did win her third straight gold, and China does lead the medal table, so the debate over success vs. humanity is likely to remain just that—a debate.

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Chinese Olympic Doctor Wonders If Michael Phelps Was Doping Too [Swimming]

Everyone had something to say about Ye Shiwen, the 16-year-old Chinese girl who blew away a world record and even outpaced Ryan Lochte's time over her final 50 meters. Most people kept the "d" word to themselves, calling Ye's swim "unbelievable" or "beyond belief" or "I don't believe she could swim that fast without drinking a growler of horse steroids." But it took USA Swimming bigwig John Leonard vocalize what everyone was tiptoeing around:

"Any time someone has looked like Superwoman in the history of our sport they have later been found guilty of doping," Leonard said.

Fair? Maybe not. Ye passed her drug test. By any standard of evidence, accusations against Ye are unfounded. And two can play at flinging unfounded accusations!

China's former Olympic doctor Chen Zhanghao (who, it should be noted, was a central figure in China's doping scandals of the '80s and '90s) came right back at America's own record-smashing hero:

"Abnormal? America's Phelps broke seven world records! Is he normal? I suspect Phelps, but without evidence, I have to recognise that we should be grounded in facts."

"The Americans have made many extraordinary performances but without evidence we have kept silent."

We can laugh this off, because Phelps didn't medal when he was 15 years old and the American swim program doesn't have the history of doping that the Chinese do. But Chen's got a point. What the hell do we know? Blood samples are kept for eight years, and will be tested for things we don't even know exist yet. Guilty until proven innocent is the new Olympic way, and doping allegations are as petty and counterproductive as they are inevitable.

Chinese doctor blasts Phelps in drugs tit-for-tat [Sydney Morning Herald]

For a handy master schedule of every Olympic event, click here.

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16-Year-Old Chinese Girl Swam A Faster 50 Meters Than Ryan Lochte [Swimming]

Ye Shiwen didn't just break the world record for the 400m individual medley. She smashed it, by more than a second. She beat silver medalist Elizabeth Beisel by nearly three seconds. She shaved more than seven seconds off her own mark at the World Championships last summer.

And perhaps most stunningly, the final 50 meters of Ye's swim were faster than Ryan Lochte's final 50m, when he took gold in the men's version on Saturday.

Ye's fellow swimmers sounded incredulous enough, and BBC presenters went even further. But it was U.S. coach and executive John Leonard who fired the first doping shots across the Chinese's bow.

"We want to be very careful about calling it doping," Leonard said. "The one thing I will say is that history in our sport will tell you that every time we see something, and I will put quotation marks around this, 'unbelievable', history shows us that it turns out later on there was doping involved. That last 100m was reminiscent of some old East German swimmers, for people who have been around a while. It was reminiscent of 400m individual medley by a young Irish woman in Atlanta."

That young Irish woman was Michelle Smith, who in 1996 had Ireland's second-best ever medal haul, and similarly dominated in the 400 IM, just before her career was done in by a series of failed drug tests.

Leonard added that Ye

"looks like Superwoman. Any time someone has looked like Superwoman in the history of our sport they have later been found guilty of doping."

Leonard points out that the Chinese swim program has something of a history of doping, dating back to the 1994 World Championships and running through the 2008 Junior Championships. Ye was straight-up asked about the cleanliness of her urine, and replied that "the Chinese team keep very firmly to the anti-doping policies, so there is absolutely no problem."

This is a thorny issue, and I'm not sure there's a respectful way to "I'm not saying she doped, but there's no way she should have been able to perform like that without doping" without it sounding like sour grapes. Especially if you're an American, since an American swimmer came in second. BUT: that was one really, really fast goddamn swim.

H/T Clever Hans

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Gamers Can Now Buy Facebook Credits in 32 More Currencies, Including the Chinese Yuan

Today Facebook announced that Facebook Credits can now be purchased in 32 additional currencies, including the Chinese Yuan, Korean Won, Israeli Shekel, and Singapore dollar, bringing the total number of supported currencies to 47. Facebook also plans to up the number of alternative payment through which users can pay for the Credits to 50.

These newly supported currencies and payment options will make it easier for international gamers to become paying customers. The ability to monetize users from around the world is one of the core benefits of Credits to developers, so its fitting that Facebook would make this announcement today on the deadline for all Facebook games to move to Facebook Credits as their exclusive payment method.

Users can select which currency they see prices in and pay with by mousing to the top right corner of Facebook, and clicking Account -> Credits Balance -> Preferred Currency.

If a gamer’s home currency isn’t supported, they can still use American Express, Discover, JCB, MasterCard, Visa and PayPal, which Facebook accepts worldwide. They could also use one of the alternative payment methods, which include money transfers through services such as Western Union, mobile payments by Boku or Zong, debit systems, and some online currencies such as MOLePoints.

Still, the ability to buy Credits with any local payment form should increase the likelihood that users from these countries will monetize. This may be especially true for younger users who can’t access credit cards or other financial instruments.

Smaller developers should benefit from the expanded currency options the Credits support, because they don’t have the resources to secure international payment options for their proprietary in game currencies. Meanwhile, large developers that already have users bases in the newly supported countries should find it easier to get them to purchase virtual goods.

Support for the Chinese Yuan

The inclusion of the Chinese Yuan as a supported currency is a bit curious, since Facebook is banned in China. Though the Yuan is an option in the Preferred Currency selector, it isn’t mentioned in the announcement, nor is it included in the Help Center document listing supported currencies.

Support for the Yuan will allow Chinese using Facebook while abroad to see prices in a currency they’re familiar with. It could also allow developers to monetize small percentage of the country who are hackers, government officials, or that can otherwise circumvent the Great Firewall of China. There’s also the outside chance that support for the Yuan could be a building block in a strategy to launch Facebook in China.

As the last developers switch over to Credits today, anything Facebook can do to smooth the dip in revenues that may occur when users are forced to adopt new purchase habits will help its standing with the developer community and the long term health of the Platform.

Below is the list of newly supported currencies:

• Argentinian Peso (ARS)


• Bolivian Boliviano (BOB)


• Brazilian Real (BRL)


• Chinese Yuan (CNY)


• Costa Rican Colon (CRC)


• Czech Koruna (CZK)


• Guatemalan Quetzal (GTQ)


• Honduran Lempira (HNL)


• Hungarian Forint (HUF)


• Iceland Krona (ISK)


• Indian Rupee (INR)


• Israeli Shekel (ILS)


• Korean Won (KRW)


• Macau Patacas (MOP)


• Malaysian Ringgit (MYR)


• Mexican Peso (MXN)


• New Zealand Dollar (NZD)


• Nicaraguan Cordoba (NIO)


• Paraguayan Guarani (PYG)


• Peruvian Nuevo Sol (PEN)


• Philipino Peso (PHP)


• Polish Zloty (PLN)


• Qatari Rials (QAR)


• Romanian Leu (RON)


• Russian Ruble (RUB)


• Saudi Arabian Riyal (SAR)


• Singapore Dollar (SGD)


• South African Rand (ZAR)


• Taiwan Dollar (TWD)


• Thai Baht (THB)


• UAE Dirham (AED)


• Uruguayan Peso (UYU)

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