Chinese football fans ask if star striker Li Ying absent from Olympics for coming out

Follow our live coverage of day two of the Tokyo Olympics here. China’s long-suffering football fans have found many targets to blame for the country’s poor showing on the international stage but they have now added a new one: homophobia. Some social media users have speculated this is the reason for the absence of the women’s team’s star striker Li Ying from the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Li became what is believed to be the country’s first openly gay athlete in June. Li posted on China’s Twitter-like Weibo to celebrate her one-year anniversary with girlfriend Chen Leilei, a move that resulted in media attention outside the country. “You are the source and objective of all my tenderness,” the 28-year-old wrote, along with a photo of the influencer. While many commenters praised Li for coming out openly, she was also inundated with homophobic comments and soon deleted the post. Li also missed out on the 2016 Olympic squad but had established herself in the meantime. She fired her way to the golden boot at the AFC Asian Cup in 2018 with seven goals in five games and scored the winner against South Africa at the Fifa Women’s World Cup a year later. China’s Tokyo dream all but over despite Wang Shuang scoring four The Shandong player has appeared more than 100 times for China but not played since the Tokyo 2020 qualifiers in Australia in February last year, missing out on the play-offs for the Olympics against South Korea this April. “I wish her the best … but I hope it won’t affect her career in any way,” wrote one Weibo influencer at the time of Li’s post, a subject that is now being revisited in the aftermath of China’s almost certain departure from the Olympics at the group stage. Li has not been included in any recent China squads, with some speculating that this came at the same time as she began sharing photos of Chen online. However, others pointed to the decisions made by China coach Jia Xuquan, who has often appeared to snub star players. Wang Shuang, who scored all four of China’s goals in their 4-4 thriller with Zambia on Saturday, has often found herself dropped to the bench by Jia despite being a generational talent. Weibo users pointed out China’s reliance on Wang, despite Jia saying that the team did not need her previously and had benched the former Paris St-Germain attacker. China fans laud women footballers – then stick boot into men At the same time, Jia was questioned over Li’s absence. “Yes, you and the Football Association know why the results are not ideal this time. Why did the second shooter Li Ying not go, because of their sexual orientation?” one asked. Another was less direct. “In addition to Wang Shuang and Li Ying in the Chinese women’s football team, she is the Asian Golden Boot winner. Unfortunately, she did not go to the Olympics this time. Everyone knows all the reasons for this.” Li has been no stranger to falling foul of the whims of the Chinese FA. The heavily tattooed striker was one of the players forced by the FA to cover her visible ink during matches. While the subject of a footballer’s sexual identity should be irrelevant to their selection, it has been pointed out that many of the world’s leading players in the women’s game are openly gay. US striker Megan Rapinoe, who is married to basketball star and Olympic gold medallist Sue Bird, is one of the most prominent, and one post in response to Li’s anniversary celebration marked the contrast between the footballers. Rapinoe is not only a World Cup winner and Olympic gold medallist but a social justice campaigner and activist for LGBT rights and equal pay. US president Joe Biden recently backed the Rapinoe-led campaign for equity in pay. Lonely China star Wang Shuang wasn’t ‘forced’ to leave PSG The post comparing Li and Rapinoe on Weibo, which got well over 160,000 likes after going viral, described the difference in their treatment as “regretful”. Brazil’s Marta, who scored twice against China in their Tokyo 2020 Olympic opener, was a comparison made after the 4-4 draw with Zambia thrust Li back into the limelight. Marta, six-time Fifa World Player of the Year, got engaged to her Orlando Pride teammate Toni Pressley in January, with the story reported by the official Olympic website. A 2016 UN Development Programme report stated that some 95 per cent of LGBT people in China choose not to come out for fear of discrimination.