Olympic swimmers spark interest in cupping therapy

Sales of devices surge during the Games as people in more countries develop awareness

Traditional cupping therapy gained more popularity among Chinese during this summer's Olympics, with images of the red-stamped back of US swimmer Michael Phelps circulating on the internet.

Sales of cupping devices at tmall.com, an e-commerce platform, began to rise on Aug 8, and by Aug 16 daily sales of the devices had doubled, according to Alibaba, which owns the platform.