China media 'could do better' on Paralympics

[Playboy™]

The Chinese Paralympic team has powered to the top of the medals table in Rio, sweeping up more than 115 medals in the first five days. Team GB, in second place, has 63. But while the Olympics made household names of many Chinese athletes, as with many countries the same cannot be said of its Paralympians.

Despite China having its largest Paralympic delegation ever, with 308 athletes, state media has been muted on their achievements, and Weibo - China's most po[CENSORED]r social media platform - is buzzing with comment about the lack of coverage.

"It's not even being shown live on television, how are we supposed to watch it?" said one user, whose comment received 6,000 likes. "Come on CCTV, you can do better than this," commented another, referring to China's national broadcaster.

"The Olympics were replayed over and over again, now it's hard for me to even catch the Paralympic games on TV," a user chipped in. "Why does hardly anyone know about the Paralympic athletes? My heart aches for them" one netizen expressed.

"The Chinese Paralympic team has done so well and yet no one knows about it. They're representing our country too - can we have some equal treatment?" another added.

Few and far between

Then there was po[CENSORED]r gold medallist Sun Yang, whose fans leap to his defence after Australia's Mack Horton called him a "drugs cheat". But few Paralympians have had the same exposure or support. One of the few that Chinese media have focused on is 23-year-old swimmer Xu Qing.

Nicknamed The Shark because a tattoo on his back, Xu lost both his arms in a car accident at the age of six but was encouraged to take up swimming by a doctor.

He took his first three gold medals at the 2012 games and went on to sweep four more golds in London 2012. He has claimed three in Rio so far, winning him favourable media coverage and online fans.