Humans of Olympics: Meet veteran journalist Yadong Liu, covering Games from Bejing to Brazil

Journalist Yadong Liu’s first Olympics were in 2008 when his motherland was the proud host. Since then, he has covered the London Olympics 2012, Sochi Winter Olympics 2014 and also the Fifa World Cup in Brazil. Rio 2016 is his fourth Olympics and between Beijing and now, one thing he has noticed is how much technology has changed.

In Beijing he used to carry a mike and a camera. Now, his colleague records on a smart phone the report while he speaks into another smart phone hidden behind his media house’s logo. In Rio for the second time, he knows little Portuguese beyond “Bom Dia (good day)” and gets by with English alone. But since he spends most of his time around the Olympic venues, touristic places and bars and restaurants near his hotel, he hasn’t had much trouble getting by as yet.

Covering the Summer Games for the Shanghai Media Group’s Shanghai Radio and TV Weekly, he says he is not interested in seeing China’s medal tally swell. What interests him is improvement. “The Chinese contingent needs to improve and that is what I am looking out for at these Games. I will be around to track them in Tokyo as well and before that at the Korea Winter Olympics as well,” says Liu.