This week at the Olympics in Paris, the men’s team of the nation finished with a silver medal.
Li thought that the team’s performance at the Summer Games shouldn’t be entirely attributed to the athletes.
Our coaching staff is having problems. Let’s not hold athletes solely responsible. According to Reuters, 50-year-old Li stated in an internet live broadcast that went viral on Chinese social media that “if they failed, the coaches did something wrong.”
Li also demanded that the nation’s perspective on the sport be fundamentally altered.
Our athletes are too senior. Youth are essential to sports. We truly must alter the way we choose and prepare athletes,” he remarked.
The five Chinese gymnasts who went to Paris were 26.2 years old on average.
Li initially took home gold in the floor competition at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, and she then repeated in the all-around at the 1992 Atlanta Summer Games.
Xiao Ruoteng, 28, and Su Weide, 24, made a few crucial mistakes during the all-around event’s last rotation. The Chinese lost their three-point advantage over Japan after the first five pieces of equipment failed, demonstrating the costly nature of their errors.
