As Chinese female track cyclists Gong Jinjie and Zhong Tianshi ducked their heads and sprinted to their history-making gold medal in the Olympic Velodrome in Rio de Janeiro, the faces of Peking Opera characters painted on their helmets also came into the spotlight for millions of spectators and viewers.

Zhang Dongliang, designer of the helmets, had a sleepless night watching the race on TV at his home in Guangzhou, Guangdong province.

“I feel as if I won the Olympic gold medal myself,” Zhang wrote in a post on the mobile messaging app WeChat, below a photo of the two cyclists sprinting toward the finish line.

However, the 30-year-old bicycle spray paint designer didn’t know his helmet designs had become a hot topic among netizens until dozens of phone calls from media woke him up the next morning.

“It was totally unexpected. I’m glad to see that Chinese culture manifested in the helmet designs has won so much favour,” Zhang said.

“I hope that the unexpected popularity of the helmet designs enables more people to become aware of the elite craftsmanship within the cycling equipment design and spray painting industry, which is still a niche market in China,” he added. “Such craftsmanship deserves respect.”

An avid cyclist himself for 10 years, Zhang founded Incolor, a design studio of four designers based in Guangzhou, in 2012 because of his passion for the art of spray painting.

A friend of Zhang’s got to know Xu Chao of the national track cycling team during a race and recommended Zhang’s design team to Xu, who was looking for designers to add to the national cyclists’ helmets “some elements to show everybody at the Olympics they are Team China”.

Zhang’s team chose to paint the faces of legendary Peking Opera characters on the helmets.

The helmet of Xu, a male cyclist, had an image of Zhang Fei, a military general in the Three Kingdom Period (AD 220-280), who was known for his bravery and loyalty.

Mu Guiying of the Song Dynasty (AD 960-1279) was painted on the helmet of Gong, who failed to win gold four years ago at the London Olympics but held on to take gold this year. Mu safeguard-ed the country together with her husband’s military family and is a cultural symbol of a steadfast woman.

The helmet of female cyclist Zhong featured Hua Mulan from the Southern and Northern Dynasties (AD 420-581), a woman of vigour and courage and a warrior who replaced her aged father to join the army.

“Mu Guiying and Hua Mulan are well-known heroines whom Chinese people usually think of when it comes to great women. Their stories fit the two female cyclists’ stories well,” Zhang said.

“In painting the characters’ faces on the helmets, it was our wish that the two female cyclists would become national heroines at the Olympics,” he added.

While it usually takes half a month to produce a helmet, Zhang’s studio spent two months on refining the designs and producing the three Olympic helmets, free of charge.

There are already helmets that claim to be “the same as the Olympic helmets with Peking Opera faces” for sale on online shopping plat-forms. Such items, which Zhang said are all copycats, were priced at from 300 to 500 yuan (S$61 to S$102) each.

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AFP, Reuters, The Straits Times

A 200-strong crowd, armed with clappers and flags, home-made placards and gifts of plush toys, turned up at Changi Airport yesterday afternoon.

And although the Singapore women’s table tennis team returned home empty-handed from the Olympics for the first time since the 2004 Athens Games, their loyal fans remain supportive of their endeavours.

Beverly Ang, 16, a Secondary 4 St Joseph’s Convent student, who is in her school’s table tennis team, said: “You can see who the real fans are. It doesn’t matter if they win or lose, if they have a medal or not. We will support them because they have motivated me to not give up and work hard.”

Dunman High School student Jostlyn Yeo, 18, added: “Just because they didn’t win or they are not Joseph Schooling, it doesn’t mean we won’t support them. We celebrate their fighting spirit too.”

Their devotion lifted the spirits of Feng Tianwei, Yu Mengyu and Zhou Yihan. The national paddlers’ tears in Rio turned into smiles as they walked into the arrival hall to a rousing reception.

Singapore paddlers’ fans remain supportive despite team’s Olympic loss

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The Straits Times, The New Paper

Fans hollered, pushed and squeezed as they tried to get a glimpse of the trio, who in turn stayed behind to patiently take photographs and sign autographs for them.

Feng, 29, expressed her appreciation for the supporters.

She said: “I didn’t immediately recover from that (loss).

“But when I arrived and saw so many people who came to support us, who didn’t stop supporting us just because we did not win a medal, I feel encouraged.”

The Republic’s top paddler is still reeling from the team’s 1-3 loss to Japan in the bronze-medal match on Tuesday, a result which ended their Rio campaign with no medals to show, after the 2008 and 2012 Games yielded a total of one silver and two bronzes.

Feng and Yu also bowed out in the quarter-finals of the women’s singles competition.

The national women’s team, with two debutantes – Yu, 27, and Zhou, 22 – in place of the retired Wang Yuegu and Li Jiawei, struggled, but Yu said: “In the end, we have some regrets, but in whatever you do, it will not be perfect. I think we have all performed well.”

As Feng and her team-mates regroup after the disappointment and prepare for the Oct 7-9 Women’s World Cup in Philadelphia, she is already targeting a shot at redemption at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

With the possible addition of a mixed doubles event in four years’ time, Feng, who will be 33 then, sees an extra opportunity to stand on the podium again.

The holder of an Olympic silver and two bronzes said: “This is a new goal and a direction I can develop towards. I hope to win a medal at the 2020 Olympic Games.”

For now, Feng will be going for her routine injections to treat her chronic knee pain caused by torn cartilage in both joints, as well as a comforting steamboat dinner. She joked: “I’ve starved for a month already. I miss the food here.”

This article was first published on August 20, 2016.
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RIO DE JANIERO – An Allyson Felix-fired US quartet scorched to gold in the women’s 4x100m relay on Friday.

Felix, long jump gold medallist Tianna Bartoletta, English Gardner and Tori Bowie, who won 100m silver and 200m bronze in Rio, combined to clock the second fastest relay time ever run, in 41.01 seconds.

Jamaica finished second in 41.36sec, handing double sprint gold medallist Elaine Thompson a third Olympic medal, with Britain taking bronze in a national record of 41.77.

RIO DE JANEIRO – Usain Bolt brought the curtain down on his Olympic career with a record-equalling ninth gold medal on Friday, anchoring Jamaica to relay glory in a perfectly-scripted finale to complete his unprecedented “triple triple.”

The 29-year-old superstar, widely seen as the greatest sprinter in history, stormed over the line in 37.27sec to trigger an eruption of adulation in the Olympic Stadium.

Japan’s quartet took a surprise silver in 37.60sec, while Canada claimed bronze after third-placed Team USA were disqualified.

No official reason was given, but TV replays seemed to indicate an early baton exchange between Mike Rodgers and Justin Gatlin.

The victory saw Bolt complete a third consecutive clean sweep of the 100m, 200m and 4x100m titles following his six gold medals in the 2008 and 2012 Games.

It leaves Bolt – who will retire in 2017 – level with Carl Lewis and Paavo Nurmi on a total of nine Olympic gold medals, a record for a track and field athlete.

The relay gold was the final act of an incredible Olympic career that redefined athletics and often left commentators scrambling to find a new vocabulary of superlatives as each new milestone came and went.

On Sunday (Aug 14), Bolt became the first man in history to win a hat-trick of 100m gold medals.

He then followed that up with Thursday’s (Aug 18) barnstorming win in the 200m, sealing another never-before-seen treble. Friday’s triumph was potentially the most awkward, with Bolt’s gold medal hopes reliant on the performances of his team-mates.

But Asafa Powell, Yohan Blake and Nickel Ashmeade were in no mood to fluff their lines, handing Bolt a lead at the final changeover.

From that point there was only ever going to be one outcome and Bolt powered home by three metres to universal delight.

Bolt will now set off a year-long lap of honour that will culminate with the World Championships in London next August.

The Jamaican is preparing to exit with athletics fighting to restore credibility after a year dominated by doping and corruption scandals.

International Association of Athletics Federations president Sebastian Coe is adamant however that athletics will endure despite the loss of its most charismatic leading man.

In an interview with AFP on Friday, Coe said Bolt had transcended his sport in a way that was comparable to boxing icon Muhammad Ali.

“The man is a genius,” Coe said. “There’s been nobody since Muhammad Ali who’s got remotely near to what this guy has done in terms of grabbing the public imagination.”

However, Coe argued that just as a new generation of boxers emerged after Ali’s retirement, so track and field would unearth new personalities after Bolt.

“It’s a massive gap, but it’s not a gap that is insuperable,” Coe said.