Sports authority changes track on abolished 'gold medal ranking'

China's sports authority has resumed its tradition of ranking provinces based on athletic performance in the National Games four days after announcing it would no longer do so, Southern Metropolis Daily reported on Friday.

On Jan 26, the General Administration of Sport announced that it would stop handing out awards based on performances during the Asian and Olympic games, and that it would no longer rank provinces according to athletic performances during the National equivalent.

It also added that these moves were aimed at getting rid of the distorting notion that "Gold medals come first."

However, a notice published on its official website on Jan 30 specified that delegations from all provinces would be ranked according to how many gold, silver, and bronze medals and total points gained during the 13th National Games, to be held in Tianjin in 2017.

On Feb 4, another notice said that delegations' athletic performances during the 13th National Winter Games in 2016 would be ranked.

As a result of this backtracking, some people feel misled.

An article in Thursday's Xinmin Weekly stated that cancelling rankings at the National Games seemed only to humor the inspection team from the central government.

The General Administration of Sport would not easily give up the main attraction that brings it huge profits, it was added.