Olympic spirit matters

To win, or not to win, that should never be the question at the Olympic Games. Honor and dishonor medals do not determine, for that is not the spirit of sports.

True, Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of modern Olympics, made "Faster, Higher, Stronger" the motto of the Games. But lest we forget, his other motto is: "The most important thing is not to win but to take part!"

Chinese female weightlifter Zhou Jun failed to hoist 95 kg in three snatch attempts in the 53 kg category at the London Games on Sunday, drawing local media criticism. And though a paper based in Yunnan province published an apology on its front page for calling Zhou's loss a dishonor, the incident shows how wrong some Chinese are about the spirit of the Games.