Tokyo Olympics: China slams news agency for posting 'ugly' picture of athlete; netizens hit back

WION Web Team

New Delhi, Delhi, IndiaUpdated: Jul 29, 2021, 06:58 PM IST

Photograph:(Reuters)

Story highlights

China's Hou Zhihui claimed a gold medal on the very first day of the Tokyo Olympics 2020 in the women's 49kg weightlifting event.

A photo of weightlifting gold medallist Hou Zhihui captured by Reuters has angered China. Chinese diplomats and a media house have slammed the news agency for showing an 'ugly' photo among all clicked in the game.

China's Hou Zhihui claimed a gold medal on the very first day of the Tokyo Olympics 2020 in the women's 49kg weightlifting event.

She won the top prize after lifting an Olympic record total of 210 kilograms. Reuters posted a story on Hou's win on Twitter. The image used in the story left China fuming.

The Chinese embassy in Sri Lanka tweeted: "Among all the photos of the games, @Reuters has chosen this one, which only shows how ugly they are.

Among all the photos of the game, @Reuters has chosen this one, which only shows how ugly they are.

Don't put politics and ideologies above sports, and call yourself an unbiased media organization. Shameless.

Respect the spirit of #Olympics. https://t.co/FugQm9obGr
— Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka (@ChinaEmbSL) July 24, 2021

"Don’t put politics and ideologies above sports, and call yourself an unbiased media organisation. Shameless."

China's Global Times then published an article accusing Reuters of "unfairly targeting China", claiming the image was "widely regarded as disrespectful".

Pls respect Olympics spirit @Reuters! Chinese embassy @ChinaEmbSL slammed Reuters' selection of an ugly photo of weightlifting gold winner Hou Zhihui. "Don't put politics and ideologies above sports, and call yourself an unbiased media organization. Shameless," the embassy posted pic.twitter.com/lIOWLOhdfj
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) July 25, 2021

Several netizens reacted to the Chinese embassy's tweet and lashed out at them for calling the image ugly.

I think its a well captured photograph, which shows nothing good in life comes easy. Its upto the person viewing the picture to interpret it, but most will appreciate this. Its quite sad that the embassy finds this "ugly." If it was a beauty pageant then its a different matter.
— Munza Mushtaq (@munza14) July 24, 2021

Wake up and recognize the beauty inherent in athletic achievement - which comes from effort.

If it were easy, you could do it.

You're focusing on the wrong thing. What's shameless is your failure to grasp what's meaningful about the image.
— SeeHear Inc (@SeeHearInc) July 26, 2021

Hou Zhihui was just 3 kilos shy of breaking the world record. However, she said that she did not care about the record and wanted to enjoy the Games.

“I just wanted to enjoy the Games. I don’t care about the world record or something,” she said.

“I just want to be myself, be all of myself.”