China: Paralympics almost 100 medals ahead of its closest rivals

China: As the Paris Paralympics enter their final day, China’s athletes are enjoying resounding success and are nearly 100 medals ahead of their nearest rivals – but few people in the country are paying attention. The Olympics were widely watched, with victorious Team China’s athletes lauded as national heroes, and a close rivalry with the United States atop the medal table. But this week, under a news post announcing that China now has more gold medals than the United States and Great Britain combined, many users on social media platform Weibo complained that very few people paid attention.

“Not enough people pay attention. It seems there has been very little coverage (of the Paralympics) on TV,” one comment read. Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, which holds the rights to the Paralympics, has aired the event live on its two free sports channels. But wider coverage has been modest compared to the Olympics. Less attention “There’s more media coverage now than there was before,” Beijing-based sports analyst Marc Dreier told AFP. “But when you look at Chinese news websites these days, the Paralympic Games are kind of buried. “There’s the odd headline here and there, but they’re not getting much coverage.” The hashtag “Paralympics, less attention” has been viewed more than 100 million times since September 2, with many people bemoaning the lack of primetime attention devoted to the Games. On Saturday, of the 24 scheduled programs on CCTV’s main sports channel, only six were broadcasts of the Paralympics – and seven were repeats of the Olympics.