Chinese women's volleyball team playing with masks draws criticism
China's women's volleyball team on Thursday played an Asian Cup group game with their masks on, causing widespread online criticism.
The Chinese Volleyball Association responded on its official Weibo account on Friday morning to mounting online criticism over China's women's volleyball team playing with masks in a match against Iran on Thursday afternoon in the Philippines during the 2022 Women's Volleyball Asian Cup.
Netizens pointed out that the practice was certainly not good for the athletes' health.
One wrote: "Wearing an N95 mask makes me hardly catch my breath while walking any distance, let alone bouncing around and playing volleyball with it on all the time."
The association welcomed the public's comments and apologized for the confusion.
It said it required its athletes to wear masks when entering the venue for the sake of COVID-19 prevention after it learned other players competing in the games had tested positive and some of China's team members had developed symptoms.
The organizing committee didn't specify whether players can wear masks during the match, the association said.
China's officials failed to remind athletes to take the masks off in time due to "the lack of experience on the spot" when the players started to play, the association said.
The team noticed the issue in the latter part of the first round and told the players to drop the masks.
China lost the first game against Iran 24-26 and then crushed its opponents with three straight wins of 25-19, 25-10, 25-13 after taking the masks off.
The Chinese national team finished first in Group A, advancing to the quarterfinal against Australia.
