The Western tabloid media can be accused of being many things - but would probably never go so far as to slam a single athlete's performance as a 'shameful defeat'.
Zhou Jun, 17, had her weightlifting performance eviscerated by Kunming's The Metropolis Times after she failed to lift the starting weight in the 53kg weight category.
The newspaper panned the display as "the most shameful defeat for Chinese female weightlifters".
Readers leaped to the girl's defence and congratulated her for even reaching Olympc qualification standards.
The Met Times reacted by hasty reaction saying they had lost sight of the Olympic spirit and was aware that Zhou was 'only a child'.
This came in the wake of 16-year-old Ye Shiwen attributing her superhuman individual medley times to an intense and scientific training regime from a very young age.
The price of China's very selective athlete identification process is a high expectation when it comes to results - but to criticise a 17-year-old is a bit rich.