An analysis of British Newspaper Coverage of the Teenage Swimming Gold Medallists at the London 2012 Olympics

Abstract

The London 2012 Olympics saw a number of medallists across events who were 16 years old or younger. This article examines the British print media coverage of three of the youngest gold medallist swimmers, namely: Ye Shiwen of China (16), Ruta Meiluyte of Lithuania (15) and Kate Ledecky of the USA (15). The aim of the analysis is to highlight the ways in which dominant discourses around childhood, exceptional ability, ethnicity and gender, are played out in media narratives about young, high-profile sport performers. The paper finds that Ye Shiwen is represented in a markedly different way to the other swimmers in the newspaper stories analysed, and argues that this discrepancy is due to perceived violations of normative Western constructions of childhood in Shiwen's backstory and stereotypical conceptions of Chinese culture.

‘Them’ in an abnormal world: Media construction and responsibility attribution of left‐behind children in rural China

“…Although the diversity in social and physical characteristics shapes children's experiences, they are all influenced by a dominant and collectively constructed ideology of childhood (James & Jenks, 1996). Those who do not conform to the standardized definition of normal childhood are often stigmatized and labelled as exceptional (O'Connor, 2014). This prescribed notion of childhood also sets expectations for parents, and those who fail to accommodate this picture of childhood are considered inadequate and incapable.…”