Paris Olympics | A Chinese woman IT programmer and an amateur runner, the first who crossed the finish line at the "Marathon for All” in Paris

The Paris Olympic Games made history by hosting the first "Marathon for All", an event that allowed the general public to run the Olympic marathon route at night. Among all the runners, Huang Xuemei, an amateur runner from China and an IT programmer at Xiamen International Bank, distinguished herself by being the first to cross the finish line. Her remarkable performance surpassed that of several professional athletes in the main race, including two members from the Chinese national team.

The Paris Olympic Games made history by hosting the first "Marathon for All". (AP Photo)

The "Marathon for All" offers a chance for amateur runners to run the same 42-kilometer route as professional athletes. Together with those who ran the 10-kilometer route a total of 40,048 runners, including 120 amateur runners from China, were lucky enough to be chosen to participate through a lot drawing system.

Huang Xuemei is an IT programmer (Weibo Photo)

According to Beijing Daily’s official Weibo, Huang Xuemei completed the marathon in 2 hours 41 minutes and 3 seconds, making her the first female runner to cross the finish line. When comparing her time to professional race results, she ranked number 70 among 91 professional athletes, surpassing Chinese runner Xia Yuyu, who finished the 72nd with a record of 2 hours 42 minutes and 10 seconds, and Bai Li, another national team member, who finished number 76 with a record of 2 hours 44 minutes and 44 seconds.

Huang Xuemei (Weibo Photo)

Huang Xuemei, a graduate of Southeast University with a degree in computer science, currently works as a programmer in the IT development department at Xiamen International Bank. According to Xiamen Net (www.xmnn.cn), Huang, in her 30s , who came from Zhaotong of Yunnan province, is not a professional athlete and has not received formal athletic training.

Huang Xuemei (Weibo Photo)

Xiamen Network further reported that Huang first discovered her talent in running during an 800-meter physical fitness test in her third year of high school. In the same year, she secured a second place in her school's long-distance running event, outpacing members of the school team. Her outstanding performance led to an invitation to join the school’s orienteering team. Since then, running has become part of Huang’s life, and she dedicated her spare time to training.

Huang Xuemei (Weibo Photo)

Huang Xuemei trains herself according to the training manual developed by coaches of the athletic association. She achieved a result of 1 hour and 18 minutes in the Haicang Half Marathon in November 2022. In the 2023 Beijing Marathon, she secured the 7th place in the international women's category and the 3rd place in the domestic women's category. In the 2024 C&D Xiamen Marathon, she finished second among domestic women. Moreover, in the 2024 IAAF Xiamen Diamond League, Huang Xuemei won the 5,000m gold medal in the women's open category. She has since been lauded as the "leading figure in public marathons." Huang Xuemei's personal best marathon time is 2 hours and 32 minutes, which also stands as the best time achieved by an amateur female marathon runner in China.

Mao Paishou

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Trump hunts for weak prey and plays fast and loose with rules. Influencer “Chairman Tu” (兔主席) lays out Trump’s playbook in "A Nation Torn Apart"  (《撕裂之國》): Trump picks on soft persimmons and he has no respect for the law. The US President thrives on behavior that looks downright criminal.

Put those together, and Trump’s latest “kidnapping” of Nicolás Maduro reads like a textbook case of bullying-by-banditry, with a small country openly plundered. That’s American imperialism with the mask ripped off.

Here’s the twist: even with public anger boiling, a few people rush in with gold paint. Wanted fugitive Nathan Law tries to dress up “bandit tactics” as acceptable because, he says, “ending dictatorship” is what really counts.

Nathan Law’s post puts gold trim on Trump’s “Maduro abduction,” making an invasion look cleaner than it is.

Chip Tsao goes even bigger. He argues that without imperialism and colonialism, there would be no modern human civilization. He then hails Trump’s capture of Maduro, along with threats aimed at Colombia and Greenland, as the dawn of a “new era of 21st-century imperialism”. No wonder viewers feel like they’re watching black turned into white right in front of them.

Law’s argument lands fast after Trump’s hard-handed “Maduro snatch.” In a social media post, he says the US military action against Venezuela serves US national security and energy needs, boosts the “defender of democracy” storyline, and also weakens China’s allies while striking at socialist dictators.

With his “Revolution of Our Times” pedigree, it’s no surprise he claps the loudest for the most extreme scenes. He insists that toppling a dictatorship lets long-oppressed citizens “recover hope” and perhaps one day draft a democratic blueprint, so pro-democracy supporters ought to welcome the outcome. The spin is so saccharine it turns Trump into Venezuela’s “saviour,” pretending freedom arrives as a gift basket—delivered by abduction.

Goals don’t cleanse methods

Law then tries to police the language. He tells critics not to quickly label the operation “American imperialism,” and instead to appreciate the “diverse and complex” political motives behind it; translation: if the “goal” sounds upright and reasonable, don’t simplify it into condemnation. Strip it down, and it’s still a defense brief for Trump and his administration.

None of this is exactly shocking if you remember Law’s own US storyline. Around 2019, he and opposition representatives visit the US repeatedly, meet Washington politicians, and get treated like honored guests—deeply grateful for American backing of the “Hong Kong protests.” So now he naturally frames Trump’s move as saving the Venezuelan people, no longer fussing over how ugly the action looks.

None of Tsao’s applause is shocking either: this is exactly his lane. He celebrates Trump’s Maduro stunt and the wider saber-rattling as the launch of a fresh, triumphant imperial era. Then he tops it off with that “imperialism built civilisation” argument, laundering colonialism’s crimes and polishing Trump into Venezuela’s supposed benefactor. It’s creepily adoring, and hard to read without shivering.

Chip Tsao cheers Trump as the man “opening a new era” of 21st-century imperialism.

The mask comes off

Trump isn’t merely “gaffe-prone” this time—he tears the mask clean off. It’s a barefaced assault on Venezuela: snatch people, seize oil (and pocket the money, too). Anyone still clinging to basic morality and justice will see him for what he is: an enemy. Which makes it all the more grotesque that figures like Nathan Law and Chip Tsao can keep marketing him as a “saviour.”

Still, there’s one silver lining: the debate made the masks slip. One round was enough to reveal who was really who.

Lai Ting-yiu