The 24th Winter Olympic Games (WOG) was held in China in 2022, and the Chinese delegation for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games made brilliant achievements on the field. The popular application of Internet technology has combined countries and regions into a global village across national borders. China is going global with positivity and openness. As one of the major symbols of national sports development, the overseas network communication capacity of Chinese WOG athletes is one of the important manifestations of the international influence of China’s winter sports. It is of important reference value for the study of the “champion effect” to research the overseas network communication capacity of Chinese WOG athletes. In this study, 17 medal-winners of the Beijing 2022 WOG are selected as the subjects of the study. Besides, five champions from Europe, the United States, and other Asian countries, the President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach, and Wang Meng, the former Chinese national team coach of both speed skating and short track speed skating and the winner of four WOG gold medals, are used as the reference analysis. The research team has collected data from 6 platforms: Google, Wikipedia, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, and capture the data from February 4 to March 14, 2022, to analyze and discuss the overseas communication capacity of Chinese athletes at the WOG.

Indicators and algorithm

This study divides communication capacity into three levels. The first is “presence.” The measure is the appearance frequency in the Internet field, operational definition is the mentioned rate and presence is the basis of communication capacity. The second level is “evaluation”, which means whether the content of “presence” is evaluated, and the positive and negative qualitative of the evaluation. It is the focus of communication capacity. The third level is “recognition”, which is the recognition degree of the content’s value (Fang et al. 2021).

Indicators

This report uses the expert method to establish indicators and weights. Six platforms: Google, Wikipedia, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, are selected as the observation dimensions. Specific indicators are set under each dimension, and each indicator participates in the dimensional assessment with different weights. The overseas communication capacities of the Chinese medal-winners, reference athletes, and key figures of the 2022 Beijing WOG are assessed by different indicators under each dimension together. There are 20 secondary indicators for each of the 6 dimensions. Each is assigned different weights for quantitative statistics and analysis, resulting in 17 indices of Chinese athletes’ overseas network communication capacity. The weights of each index are as follows:

Algorithm

This research transforms the non-quantitative data into quantitative data, and the indicators of non-quantitative data are “entry integrity” in Wikipedia, etc. The correction coefficients of each indicator are calculated. The orders of magnitude of each indicator are different. In order to balance the data gap, we calculate the the correction coefficient of each indicator according to the weights listed in Table 1. We also calculate the comprehensive index and single index of overseas network communication capacities of each athlete.

Table 1 Index system and weights of Chinese WOG athletes’ overseas network communication capacity
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Data collection time

The collection time of 20 secondary indicators in 6 dimensions of Google, Wikipedia, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube in this report are all from February 4, 2022, to March 14, 2022.

Research objects

Chinese athletes in the Beijing 2022 WOG

This report selects 17 medal-winners of the Chinese delegation in the 2022 WOG as the research subjects, including gold, silver, and bronze medal winners, covering different WOG competition events. See Table 2 for the specific list.

Table 2 List of Chinese medal-winners in the WOG
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Reference persons

In order to compare the overseas network communication capacity with foreign athletes, gold medal winners of national featured events at the head of the 2022 WOG medal tally are selected, covering Europe, USA, and Asia. IOC President Thomas Bach and Wang Meng, the former Chinese national team coach of both speed skating and short track speed skating and the winner of four WOG gold medals, who have high network communication popularity, are also selected as references. Choosing them as the sample is of important reference value for studying the overseas communication capacity of Chinese medal winners. See Table 3 for the specific list.

Table 3 List of reference personnel
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Comprehensive index of overseas network communication capacity of Chinese WOG athletes

Ranking of Chinese WOG athletes’ overseas network communication capacity index

The top five overseas network communication capacities of 17 Chinese WOG athletes in 2022 are Eileen Gu, Su Yiming, Sui Wenjing, Han Cong, and Gao Tingyu in order. The rest of the rankings are distributed as follows (Table 4).

Table 4 Ranking of Chinese WOG athletes’ overseas communication capacity index
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On Google, the top five athletes in news searches largely coincided with the Google communication capacity index ranking. The most frequent terms in the news of each athlete are closely related to the WOG competition. In addition, other topics related to athletes are also mentioned.

On Wikipedia, the entries of Chinese WOG athletes on Wikipedia are not complete. The lack of personal life is most obvious in six aspects: presence or absence of entries, career, personal life, personal achievements, external links, and others.

On other social media such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, the difference in the communication capacity index of Chinese WOG athletes is obvious, with Eileen Gu far ahead of the others. The number of followers, the number of friends, the number of content posted, and the number of likes vary greatly. Except for Eileen Gu, other athletes post less content and have a low number of likes and few replies.

Reference analysis

Comparing 17 Chinese athletes at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games with 7 reference athletes and key figures, we found that Chinese athlete Eileen Gu is ahead of the reference athletes and key figures of other countries in terms of communication capacity in overseas networks, but there is a gap between the communication capacity of other athletes in overseas networks and the reference athletes, and no athlete has a comprehensive index of communication capacity higher than the 5 reference athletes of other countries. Chloe Kim (USA), the reference athlete with the highest overseas network communication capacity ranking, has a communication capacity index of 59.5% of Eileen Gu. Thomas Bach, the key reference figure, has only 20.7% of Eileen Gu’s communication capacity index but is ahead of 15 Chinese WOG athletes (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1
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Reference analysis of overseas communication capacity comprehensive index

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On Google, the communication capacity of Chinese WOG athletes is at a medium level, and still has a certain gap with the head reference athletes.

On Wikipedia, the communication capacity index of Chinese athlete Eileen Gu is higher than all references, and is 21.0% higher than the second athlete Yuzuru Hanyu; however, the communication capacity index of other Chinese athletes is overall lower than the reference athletes of other countries.

On Twitter, the communication capacity of our athletes is significantly lower compared to the reference athletes and key figures. The communication capacity index of reference athletes is higher than that of the majority of Chinese athletes. It is more common for Chinese athletes not to register Twitter accounts, and the gap between the number of followers of Chinese athletes and reference athletes is huge.

On Facebook, in general, the gap between the Facebook communication capacity of our athletes and that of the reference athletes is not obvious, but the gap in the number of friends is huge. On Instagram, the communication capacity index of Eileen Gu is higher than all reference athletes and key figures. However, the gap between other athletes and head reference athletes is larger. The gap between our athletes and foreign reference athletes is mainly reflected in two aspects: the number of fans and the highest number of likes.

On YouTube, Chinese WOG athlete Eileen Gu has the highest communication capacity index, higher than all reference athletes and key figures, and the gap between other athletes and reference athletes and key figures is smaller. The network communication capabilities of Chinese athletes on YouTube are relatively good, but most athletes still have room for improvement.

Characteristic analysis

The top five Chinese WOG athletes ranked in the comprehensive index of overseas network communication capacity are Eileen Gu, Su Yiming, Sui Wenjing, Han Cong, and Gao Tingyu in order (Table 5).

Table 5 The top five Chinese WOG athletes ranked in the comprehensive index of overseas network communication capacity by platform
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Positive correlation between the overseas network communication capacity ranking of Chinese WOG athletes and their achievements.

According to the research results, there is a positive correlation between Chinese WOG athletes’ overseas network communication capacity ranking and their achievements. First, Chinese athletes who won gold medals in the 2022 WOG have higher overseas network communication capacity than those who won silver and bronze medals. The top ten athletes in the overall index of overseas network communication capacity are all gold medal winners. Second, athletes with more medals have higher overseas network communication capacity. Eileen Gu won two gold medals and one silver medal, and Su Yiming won one gold medal and one silver medal, and both of them ranked in the top two in overseas network communication capacity. Finally, athletes with higher individual scores have higher overseas network communication capacity than those with higher team scores. The top five athletes in the overall index of overseas network communication capacity are all gold medal winners in non-team events.

Eileen Gu has a significant head effect and exceeds other athletes

According to the study results, Eileen Gu tops both the overall index of overseas communication capacity and the communication capacity index ranking of each platform and has a large gap with second place. She occupies a dominant position in the social communication capacity index, the number of followers, the highest number of likes, and the most comments. On Google, the total number of news for Eileen Gu is 115, and the rest of the athletes are under 100. On Wikipedia, only Eileen Gu has 5 entries, and 43.8% of the athletes have only 2 entries. On Twitter, Eileen Gu has 125,000 followers, Sui Wenjing and Han Cong have 1551 followers, and Su Yiming, Xu Mengtao, and Qi Guangpu have 295, 30, and 5 followers respectively. On Facebook, Eileen Gu posted 37 content updates, higher than the remaining two athletes Xu Mengtao (2 contents) and Gao Tingyu (2 contents) who posted content and had the highest number of likes. On Instagram, the number of fans of Eileen Gu reached 1,507,460, pulling up the overall fan base level, with 72.5% of athletes having less than 100,000 fans. Meanwhile, Eileen Gu’s most replies and highest likes were 53,626 and 435,085 respectively, far surpassing the other athletes. On YouTube, the greatest number of content posted by Eileen Gu is 364, while 88.3% of the athletes have less than 50 pieces of content, and the most number of content posters about Eileen Gu is 218. More than half of the athletes have less than 10 content publishers. Eileen Gu’s head effect is obvious, far ahead of other athletes.

There are differences in athletes’ communication capacity indices on various platforms, especially on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram

Influenced by the characteristics of different platforms, the communication capacity index of Chinese WOG athletes also differs from platform to platform. For example, Su Yiming ranks 2nd overall and on Google, but performs poorly in the Twitter dimension, ranking 4th and lagging far behind the top three. On the other hand, the Chinese WOG athletes who rank 6–10 in the overall overseas communication capacity index also have some differences in their communication capacity index rankings on different platforms. Xu Mengtao is No. 2 on Facebook, but outside the top 5 on all other platforms; Fan Kexin is among the top 3 on YouTube but ranked 6–10 on all other platforms; Wu Dajing is ranked relatively high on Instagram and Facebook, but not in the top 10 on Wikipedia.

Chinese WOG athletes’ Twitter communication capacity is generally low

The Twitter communication index consists of two indicators: the number of followers and the content posted. For the posted content, three factors are counted: the number of content posted, the highest number of reposts, and the most comments during the WOG. Only 6 Chinese WOG athletes have registered their Twitter accounts. In terms of the number of followers, except for Eileen Gu, Sui Wenjing and Han Cong have 1551 followers, while Su Yiming, Xu Mengtao and Qi Guangpu have 295, 30, and 5 followers respectively. In terms of content posted, only Eileen Gu, Sui Wenjing, and Han Cong have updated their content, posting 46 and 49 pieces of content respectively, with little updated information. Compared with Facebook and Instagram, which are also social platforms, the construction of domestic athletes’ Twitter communication capacity is obviously weak (Table 6).

Table 6 Communication capacity index ranking of Chinese WOG athletes on Twitter
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Countermeasures and suggestions

Strengthen visual symbolic communication and reduce cultural discount

Nowadays, along with the development of media technology, visual communication with graphic images as the main body has become the mainstream form of media communication. In the international mainstream media platforms, pictures, videos, and graphics occupy half or more content, and short video platforms represented by Tik Tok are also rising rapidly. Compared with text and other symbols, visual symbols have stronger visual impact and appeal, as well as higher translatability and interculturality, which can cross cultural boundaries, reduce cultural discounts, lower understanding bias, and gain more audience attention in international communication. For sports, visual communication can bring audiences a better sense of experience and immersion, present the performance and spectacle of sports, and show the image and style of athletes.

Therefore, in the international communication of sports events such as the WOG, we must be adept at using visual symbols, so that Chinese stories, images, and culture can be constructed, interpreted, and disseminated. Through various visual symbols such as athletes, mascots, and event venues, we can form a visual matrix to achieve a subtle communication effect, which is easy for cross-cultural audiences to accept, understand and identify. During the opening ceremony of the Beijing WOG, there was a lively discussion about the opening ceremony performance, design, and athletes’ entrance costumes (Fan and Wang 2022). This shows that multiculturalism, which is visually presented in visual form, can attract the attention of a wide range of overseas users.

At the same time, we must also pay attention to and seize the space of visual communication to pre-empt the position of public opinion (Guo and Fan 2022). It is through interceptions and filters that some foreign media smear China with disinformation. For example, a user posted a side view of the Shougang Ski Jump on a foreign platform, claiming that the ski slope was next to a nuclear power plant, while it was a Shougang industrial site. If we can release videos and graphics about the race course in advance, we can dispel the rumors earlier and reduce misunderstandings and attacks.

Strengthen the life narrative and show the personalized image of athletes

In recent years, as the “new era of public diplomacy” has arrived, the addition of non-state actors has broken the original single-subject model, with pluralism becoming a trend and individual narratives under the free ethic gradually increasing (Zhong and Ling 2018). New media platforms with grassroots and fragmentation characteristics are better at focusing on small individual narratives and achieving the effect of immersion through the representation of small characters, small events, and small scenes (Hu 2022). Therefore, in the international communication of WOG athletes, we must also grasp the characteristics of new media platforms, focus on the individual characteristics of athletes, strengthen the narrative of living and entertainment content, create a more three-dimensional, more vivid image of athletes, increase the degree of conversation and infection, and attract more audience attention. For example, among the overseas communication capacity statistics of WOG athletes, Eileen Gu, who has a distinctive character and outstanding personality, ranks the highest. At the same time, we should also strengthen the image management and media training of athletes, and encourage more athletes to voice out in foreign media actively. In this way, we can strengthen individualized foreign communication and show China’s image, reduce misunderstanding and prejudice brought by different narrative structures and propaganda discourse, and dissolve contradictions and conflicts in communication with individualized, diversified, and lifelike communication methods. Reuters has also published an article saying that “the natural image of athletes flowing through social media attracts traffic to the mainstream media that broadcast the Olympic events” (Wang and Chen 2022). For example, some foreign WOG athletes, such as Yuzuru Hanyu and Anna Shcherbakova, have opened personal accounts or discussion circles on Chinese media platforms, which many fans follow and love.

Highlighting multiple value expressions to create a more three-dimensional image of athletes

In communication, the expression of stories and the construction of images rely on symbols, and multiple value symbols provide a rich carrier and many possibilities for presenting more three-dimensional athletes’ images (Lin 2022). If athletes want to get higher attention and popularity, they must dig deeper into the stories and lives behind their sports achievements. For example, among the top athletes in overseas communication, Yuzuru Hanyu’s hard work, Ailing Gu’s self-confidence, and Anna Shcherbakova’s temperament are their distinctive value labels, which are also highly discussed and popular.

In international communication, we should be good at using diversified value symbols for integration and innovation and empowering the image construction of athletes with multiple symbols. First of all, we should actively expand the scope of coverage of athletes, not only set topics around sports itself, but also take this as the center to explore different shining points and characteristics of athletes, such as differentiated character traits, upbringing, life status, etc., to make athletes’ images more three-dimensional and more prominent. Secondly, we should use a variety of media forms and content carriers to integrate the display. For instance, we can use a variety of media such as graphics, audio and video and carriers like film and television dramas, animation, music, and novels to show the personal style of the athletes comprehensively and to broaden the communication path and enhance the attractiveness of the communication content. Again, with the help of various symbols, different elements of content and athletes can be combined to deepen personal characteristics, such as Eileen Gu who loves Chinese snacks, Su Yiming, who has acted in movies, Natalie Taschlerova who likes Bing Dwen Dwen, etc. Food elements, film and television elements, mascot elements, fashion elements, etc. can be combined with athletes to form personal characteristics and broaden public recognition.

Sports should be deeply integrated with the media industry to highlight the spillover effect

The sports and media industry are reinforcing each other. With media coverage and publicity, the attention to sports events will be significantly increased, and the influence and popularity of athletes will be enhanced. The media industry will reap traffic while promoting sports, thus promoting its development back. With the opportunity of the WOG, it is more important to deeply integrate sports and media industries to bring into play the “spillover effect” of the event (Chen 2018). By promoting the process of the event, athletes’ performance, and even sports knowledge on media, we can widely attract enthusiasts to participate, encourage people to do sports, and drive the growth of the sports economy. Meanwhile, we can improve the sports and culture and media industries through the wide attention and influence. In this report, Wang Meng, as a sports figure, became extremely popular during the WOG, indicating an obvious spillover effect, which is conducive to promoting the development and popularization of winter sports in China.

Sports stars as public diplomacy symbols can expand the commonality of discourse and international influence

The influence of sports events is all-rounded. International sports events can not only bring athletes from all over the world to participate and attract the attention of global media but also play a more profound role in promoting a country or region, activating the development vitality and potential of the country. Moreover, it can better make sports events a “public symbol” and play an active role in international communication. The development of the Beijing 2022 WOG and the spread of the spirit of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games should not only enhance the overseas communication capacity of Chinese athletes, but also promote the national cultural propaganda with the help of sports stars so that the foreign communication capacity and international influence of China can be improved.