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The China/Cuba match on MSNBC this morning was a classic.
China, drawing from a population a thousand times larger than that of Cuba, has assembled a team of astounding skills......but in a strange twist......also some amazingly chubby and out of shape players.
One would think that the Chinese coaches are using pizza as a reward for good play.
As a kid I was always told that the people in China were starving and the stereotypical Chinaman, to me, was gaunt and hungry-looking.
But the Chinese Volleyball team hasn't missed any meals.....in fact, some of these behemoths look like they eat exclusively at MacDonald's.
So it was predictable that in an excruciatingly long and exhausting match......the talented Chinese women could not compete with the sleek and well-conditioned Cubans.
The Chinese just had too many players who got too tired to continue to play at a world-class level.....and in the final tie-breaker their incredibly robust star spiker ran out of gas. She had all she could do to drag her ample belly around the court and her attempts to jump were sabotaged by an elemental force......gravity.
Up to that point, though.......it was a classic nail-biter of a contest.
Strange though, that a nation we tend to view as underfed if not starving......would be brought down by fat.
The other teams have now learned......to beat the awesome Chinese at volleyball--you have to stay with them and wear them down.
I see diets in their future.
Pax!
