Today the LA Times has a fascinating article about the horrible things Chinese athletes have to go through to become Olympians. Check this out:

The only mother on China’s team, Xian Dongmei, told reporters after she won her gold medal in judo that she had not seen her 18-month-old daughter in one year, monitoring the girl’s growth only by webcam. Another gold medalist, weightlifter Cao Lei, was kept in such seclusion training for the Olympics that she wasn’t told her mother was dying. She found out only after she had missed the funeral. … Chen Ruolin, a 15-year-old diver, was ordered to skip dinner for one year to keep her body sharp as a razor slicing into the water. The girl weighs 66 pounds.

When we were watching the Olympics, Sarah asked me if they made me feel patriotic. In a way, I think they did. It’s easy to feel like you’re living in an oppressive society when you’re surrounded by dismal political news every day, but when you see our athletes competing against a country like China, it’s pretty obvious who has a better quality of life. Our athletes were happy and excited to be there, while the Chinese athletes looked like they were stepping out of their cages to compete for a few hours. Which, essentially, they were.

What I don’t get is … why didn’t I hear anything about this during the actual Olympics? I watched that little 66 pound girl win gold, but I didn’t once hear someone say, “by the way, this chick isn’t allowed to eat dinner.” Are there any sort of regulations for who competes in the Olympics? How is this any better than North Korea? Basically, these athletes are taken from their parents as children and tortured until they become perfect Olympic machines. But when they’re competing, the athletes are treated as if they’re there of their own free will. Like, what if our World Cup team was comprised of prison athletes? Note to Hollywood: please call me on this idea. Tentative title: “Prison Cup”.