The Chinese athletes get a nice reward for getting a gold. And I'm not sure they have the endorsement opportunities other countries have. The financial incentives may be the only reason they train.

Anecdote - In Australia, I see very, very few non-westernised Asians participate in exercise or sports.

To put concrete terms on "reward", it translates to like >$30000 cash from the national government (already 3x median household income), and additionally sometimes rewards from provincial government, luxury cars, and houses.

Counter point http://www.smh.com.au/sport/olympics/rio-2016/olympics-swimm...

So some of the Chinese are having a good time :D !

good stuff!

You must play the wrong sports then. Check out the private school badminton teams, for example.

Chinese male gymnasts just got bronze behind Japan and Russia in the team event, and were clearly pissed off about it.