I am happy about every golden medal Germany has won, but there is one I am particularly pleased about:
The German cyclist Sabine Spitz took gold in the women’s mountain bike race. And I do not only admire her for her athletic achievement, but she has also been one of the nine German Olympians that have posed with pictures of Chinese dissidents held up in front of their faces to protest the country’s politics.
The nine responded to a Suddeutsche Zeitung magazine request sent out to 200 German athletes to pose for a spread headlined “Wir sind alle Chinesen” (= “We are all Chinese”).
Sabine Spitz chose to hold up over her face a picture of Yang Tongyan, a writer sentenced to 12 years for demanding democratic change in China.
“I was excited when I went to the Sydney and Athens Games - I can’t say that this time,” she said in the caption below the picture.
“I don’t know what I should think about a country where people can’t speak freely.”
“Als ich zu den Spielen nach Sydney und Athen gefahren bin, habe ich mich darauf gefreut. Das kann ich jetzt nicht sagen. Ich weiß nicht, was ich von einem Land halten soll, in dem sich seine Bürger nicht frei äußern dürfen. Uns Sportlern sind vom Internationalen Olympischen Komitee politische Äußerungen vor Ort untersagt – auch eine Art, Menschenrechte zu beschneiden.”