Why China’s sporting machine fails to turn individual Olympic gold into team success

When it comes to individual success, China can appear to be an unstoppable sporting machine at times, from dominating table tennis, to training divers to enter the water without a splash and weightlifters to shatter world records.

But translate that same state-led sports model onto a football pitch, basketball court, and latterly volleyball court, and the system stumbles.

In a year when China’s men again watched on as others played in an expanded Fifa World Cup, an economist and a sports...