Chinese gold medalist faced with absurd line of questioning, described as 'manly woman'

After you win an Olympic gold medal, the first thing you would expect to be asked about is the winning performance. Something along the lines of how it feels to officially be the best in the world at your given sport.

Unfortunately for China’s Gong Lijiao, after winning the gold medal in women’s shot put, the post-event interview focused solely on her relationship status, rather than her triumph. She was also absurdly described as a “manly woman” during the segment.

The interview was conducted by the Chinese state media channel CCTV, which asked Gong a number of highly personal questions, including both when she would marry and if she had plans for children.

Nothing on one of the most dominating shot put performances ever seen, but instead if she had “plans for a woman’s life?”

The asinine line of questioning caused many Chinese citizens to come to the defence of their new Olympic champion on the popular social media platform Weibo.

One of the trending hashtags was “Is marriage the only thing that can be talked about women?”

Clearly, the female reporter from CCTV thought so.

Gong is a better person than most, however, as no one would’ve blamed her if she decided not to give the interviewer the time of day. Instead, the 32-year-old decided to take the high road.

“I may look like a manly woman on the outside, but inside I’m still more of a girl,” she said in response to the inappropriate label.

She was also asked: “Since you used to be a manly woman for shot put, do you feel you can be yourself from now on?”

Gong responded, “Um… maybe I’ll look at my plans. If I don’t train then perhaps I will lose weight, get married and have children. Yes, it’s the path one must take in life.”

One good thing to come out of all this is that Gong now has hundreds of new fans in her corner. One popular post on Weibo claimed that “It’s not that she can’t get married, it’s that no man is her match.”

That truly might be the case as Gong’s performance was so dominant, all five of her throws would’ve been good enough for the gold medal.

Not too shabby if you ask us.

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