Best Friends, Chinese Olympic volleyball star Jenny Lang Ping and American Olympic volleyball star Flo Hyman. Courtesy photo

By ZHEN HUANG
Los Alamos

My Olympic passion can be traced back to my college years. At the time during the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics, I was a student at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.

I remember that hot Beijing summer night when we cheered for the Chinese women’s volleyball team for winning the gold Olympic medal. What made that game so exciting was that the Chinese Team lost the first two sets to the America Team but reversed the loss in the following three sets and finally won the gold medal.

It was not just a game, but a demonstration of the Olympic Spirit. It was such an Olympic Spirit that has encouraged a generation of Chinese students who hold a lifetime belief in never giving up our endeavor for a higher goal, a stronger self, and a better world. 

Many years later, when I watched the video of the 1984 Olympics women’s volleyball final, when I read the article written by the Chinese Team leading player Lang Ping in remembering her best friend Flo Hyman, the American Team leading player, I gave some more thoughts on the value of the Olympic Competition. I like what former President Obama has come up with regarding the value of the Olympic Competition, that is, Friendship, Respect, and Excellence. I think that It was such a value both the Chinese Team and the American Team held that brought such an exciting gold medal game to the world, making such shining golden memories never fade away. 

The Olympic value has taught us that competition is about striving for Excellence, not Exclusion. Excellence can only be achieved by Friendship and Respect, while hostility and resentment can only result in Exclusion. Friendship can flourish by mutual Respect, while Respect requires us to have sincere admiration for our opponents elicited by their abilities, qualities, and achievements. The 1984 Olympics women’s volleyball final was such a perfect demonstration of Friendship and Respect. 

The world needs the Excellence to develop and advance our civilization, not the Exclusion to destroy our advancement to return to barbarism. 

1984 was also the year when Beijing was awarded to host the 1990 Asian Olympic Games. During the 1980’s, China ranked among the top 20 poorest countries. The City of Beijing had been suffering from severe environmental problems caused by blowing sandstorms from its northern deserts. The Asian Olympic Games award actually came with a condition that the host city Beijing was required to improve its environment. We Beijing students volunteered our time and efforts wholeheartedly to contribute to meet the requirements for Beijing to host the Asian Olympic Games. 

I remember those years during our winter breaks, we went to the northern mountains outside of Beijing suburbs, the place where Beijing 2022 will be held, to participate in the Great Green Wall Program, also known as the Three-North Shelter Forest Program, a national program launched to fight the raging sandstorms. Our job was to dig deep 3ft by 3ft pits on the hard stony mountain slopes for preparation of next spring planting.

Beijing’s winter can sometimes get very cold. I remember we often started our day early in the morning, by a warm up run “competition” to get to our jobside miles away from our accommodations. On our way we would stop at those pits we dug in previous years to check on the plant growth and argue about whose pits were the best made. I also remember we enjoyed the farmer’s meals in the evening that were so much better tasting than what we had in our Beijing’s cafeteria, in particular, the farmer’s fried duck that made me wonder why it was not as famous as the QuanJuDe Beijing Duck. 

Many years later, when I read about that some western foreign policy makers had speculated that Chinese would develop nuclear weapons following the loss of Beijing’s bid to host the 2000 Olympic Games because of the critics on the environmental problems, I remembered those happy times I spent at the mountain slopes outside Beijing suburbs, and can’t help to LOL. We dug these “pits” to grow trees to protect our environment, not to build those LANL “pits” to grow mushroom clouds to pollute our environment … These “pits” are not those “pits”.

I am very happy that Team USA of 222 athletes will attend the Beijing 2022.

Here is a former Beijing student to send: Best Wishes to Team USA of Beijing 2022!