China’s win-at-any-cost mentality has come under increasing global scrutiny in recent days, as questions are being asked what price their physically perfect specimens are having to pay for victory. The most recent, very sad revelation came in the wake of Wu Minxia’s third gold medal for diving, at which point her parents finally felt they could tell her that both of her grandparents had died in the past year and her mother had undergone a long, difficult battle with breast cancer. Her parents were concerned that the news would distract her from her training, and chose to tell her that her grandparents were fine, although they both passed away over a year ago. “It was essential to tell this white lie,” said her father Wu Yuming. “We accepted a long time ago that she doesn’t belong entirely to us. I don’t even dare to think about things like enjoying family happiness” …
