Is Wu Yanni, the goddess of athletics, more popular online than the world champion?! Has the Chinese sports industry become the "king of traffic" woman | Wu Yanni | Popularity

Wu Yanni's debut was the absolute focus of the Chengdu Universiade on the 3rd. This Sichuan girl, hailed by netizens as the "goddess of Chinese athletics," ran a time of 12.98 seconds in the women's 100m hurdles preliminary round, winning the first place in the preliminary round and being the only athlete to run 13 seconds in the preliminary round.

This preliminary round, which did not produce any gold medals, has garnered more attention and discussion on the internet, even surpassing the gold medal battles of world champions such as Zhang Yufei and Qin Haiyang. I would like to refer to this as the "Wu Yanni phenomenon".

This is a new phenomenon of sports idols that has emerged from the integration of traditional competitive sports with the current visual based social media era.

Reasons for liking Wu Yanni

After the excitement in the audience, the competition on that day was a continuous fermentation on the Internet. On social platforms such as Tiktok and Xiaohongshu, there were a lot of short videos about her long before the game. After the competition that day, both traditional media and self media quickly took action, pairing the dynamic melody with her "beautiful and spirited" competition moments. Short videos with similar styles rushed to be launched, and many received tens of thousands of likes and shares.

The comment below a popular video that received the most likes made me laugh and cry, "Wu Yanni and Liu Xiang are both the same master, Nie Haiping.". On the one hand, Wu Yanni is not Liu Xiang's junior sister; On the other hand, Liu Xiang's mentor, the elderly man known as the "Godfather of Chinese hurdles," is known to any slightly older sports enthusiast by the name Sun Haiping.

But on second thought, this doesn't seem unacceptable either - these may be young fans or not traditional track and field fans. Most people may not be familiar with the women's 100m hurdles and have no idea about Wu Yanni's current performance. But for them, none of this hinders pursuing and loving their idols.

Wu Yanni is definitely the most popular contestant at the Chengdu Universiade. In the Universiade Village, she is the idol that many fans are eager to take photos with. On the internet, she is the "goddess" praised by fans for her beauty, strength, and natural and authentic demeanor. The organizers of the Universiade are also well aware of Wu Yanni's popularity and have specially appointed her as the main torchbearer. Some media even concluded that it was Wu Yanni's appearance that led people to turn their attention back to short span projects after Liu Xiang retired many years ago.

But compared to Chinese football superstars like Liu Xiang or Su Bingtian who have countless fans, Wu Yanni's path to fame is clearly different. The former has achieved unprecedented achievements in their field, proving the absolute strength of Chinese athletes on the international stage, and only then has they gained recognition and recognition from the general public. Although Wu Yanni is also a leader in this project in China and a favorite to win the Universiade, in terms of athletic performance alone, she not only has a gap compared to her predecessors, but also has a significant gap compared to experts around the world.

Wu Yanni's best result was 12.87 seconds at the 2021 National Athletics Championships, becoming the national champion and the highest achievement she has ever achieved in her career. And her predecessor, Wu Shuijiao, who was once known as the "female Liu Xiang" of China, helped the Chinese team win the gold medal in the women's 100m hurdles Asian Games with a time of 12.72 seconds as early as the 2014 Incheon Asian Games. The national record is Zhang Yu's time of 12.64 seconds, which is a full 30 years ago. These two female generals, when each achieved their highest career achievements, can almost be said to be unknown.

Looking at the world, the women's 100m hurdles world record is set by Nigerian athlete Amusan with a time of 12.12 seconds, and the Asian record is held by Kazakhstani athlete Olga Hichkina with a time of 12.44 seconds.

And this year's best performance in China was Wu Yanni's 12.93 seconds run at the recent National Athletics Championships. What level is this score at? If compared to the men's 110 meter hurdles, it's about a time of around 13.70 seconds - it should be noted that at the Athens Olympics, when Liu Xiang became famous, his time in the men's 110 meter hurdles was 12.91 seconds, tying the world record set by British athlete Colin Jackson.

Even at the Asian Games, with Wu Yanni's current strength, her chances of winning gold are relatively small. Japanese veteran Mako Fukube achieved a good time of 12.73 seconds last year. At next year's Paris Olympics, the standard time for the women's 100m hurdles was 12.77 seconds. Wu Yanni needs to work harder to fulfill her dream and step onto the Olympic stage.

The era of traffic can also create a true "goddess of athletics"

Wu Yanni is by no means an exception. Many "Wu Yanni" are currently emerging in the Chinese sports industry. Wu Yanni, who does not possess absolute competitive strength, also deserves the reputation of being the "goddess of athletics".

The era we live in does indeed give higher attention to external traits such as individual "traffic" and "appearance", which is related to the trend of digitalization and socialization in our lives. Obviously, Wu Yanni's performance in sports performance is not the only reason for her widespread attention. Her appearance, personal charm, and self presentation also play an important role in it.

We cannot deny the connection between appearance, personality, moderate packaging, and media and public attention. In the era of visual based social media, the above are important factors that attract public attention.

And "traffic" can also be seen as a positive resource that can be used to promote sports, encourage public participation, and increase the attention to sports events. A highly popular athlete like Wu Yanni can help attract more audience attention to athletics, enhance the attention and viewing value of the event. At the same time, she can also use her influence to encourage more people to participate in sports, enhance public awareness of fitness and sports enthusiasm.

When looking at the "Wu Yanni phenomenon", we should consider it as a result of the interaction between current society, media, and sports. Wu Yanni's success is not only reflected in her athletic performance, but also in her influence and attractiveness as a public figure. And mainstream media should maintain a clear understanding that traffic can certainly be tracked, but this does not mean that factors such as appearance are more important than professional skills. When evaluating an athlete's performance, we still need to prioritize their actual performance in the competition.

Finally, although we appreciate Wu Yanni's beauty and charm, we cannot forget that she is a professional athlete, and her value and achievements ultimately depend on everything she achieves on the track.