Olympics

In case you thought SG clocked another 'first' in paying Chinese players to play against Chinese players, you may want to read this:

"Switching nationality in order to compete at the Olympics has become more noticeable in Beijing than in previous Games and it is beginning to cause concern among international sports bodies."

Well, if you ask me, i'll think that athletes, like corporate execs and migrant workers, are just another component of the mobile labour force. So anything which restricts labour mobility is bad economics.

So is there any pride in winning medals using talent bought from overseas? Yes. it is simply a matter of perspective.
If you'd bought second rate players and they beat the first rate ones, then you can be proud about your superior training and motivation methods.
If you'd bought second rate players and they only got silver, you can still be proud that you're richer than all the other countries who didn't manage to buy your players.

Anyway, i was reading this report on Women's TT Singles and it seems to me that every player participating, from Hong Kong to some angmoh country whose name i can't remember, is Chinese.

We have found the next export engine to drive the Chinese economy.