CHINA: OLYMPICS - Olympics inspire Beijing's young athletes to dream for greatness

Record ID: 329546

  • Title: CHINA: OLYMPICS - Olympics inspire Beijing's young athletes to dream for greatness
  • Date: 25th June 2008
  • Summary: STUDENTS TRAINING AT TABLE TENNIS TWO BOYS PLAYING TABLE TENNIS MORE OF TWO BOYS TRAINING BOY HITTING TABLE TENNIS BALL ANOTHER BOY TRAINING GIRL LIFTING WEIGHT WITH ONE LEG / STUDENTS TRAINING IN TAEKWONDO IN THE BACKGROUND TWO STUDENTS TRAINING IN TAEKWONDO TAEKWONDO TRAINING IN PROGRESS
  • Embargoed: 10th July 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: China
  • Country: China
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVACCN4LNKYUJW8OMN12YF0IM086
  • Story Text: Hard work and love of sports is a winning recipe at Beijing's Shichahai sports school, which hopes to turn the young athletes into the Olympic stars of the future.
    With the whole of the Chinese capital gripped with Olympic enthusiasm, Beijing's young athletes do not have to look far in the city for inspiration.
    The students at Beijing's elite Shichahai sports school, in the centre of the city, spend hours every day honing their skills and preparing their bodies for future tournaments.
    With the 2008 Summer Games starting in Beijing in August, the students, for the first time ever, get a close-up look at what the future might hold for them.
    Shichahai school is regarded as the cradle of China's future sports stars. The hard-core training provided to youngsters has nurtured 31 Olympic and world champions. But the fame and glory does not come easy for the students, some of whom are as young as six-years-old.
    The "six-pack" abdominal muscles on the nine-year-old gymnastics students are a result of hard work.
    There is no slacking, and even with one arm in a cast, students participate in the daily four-hour training sessions.
    Critics have denounced China's rigorous training methods, that are modelled on former Soviet sports schools, as denying children their childhood.
    Yet the schools have helped China secure thousands of medals at major events since 1949.
    Many of those who have benefited from this kind of training are convinced it remains the secret of their country's sporting success.
    There are some 23,000 state-supported athletes in the pyramid structure that makes up China's sports system and some believe that every gold medal the hosts claim at this year's Olympics will be a product of it.

    "We are very strict with them but at the same time we want to get them to develop an interest and a liking of what they do. When a person likes what they do, they have the ability to succeed, they can get to a very high level," Shichahai sports school gymnastics coach Zhao Gengbo told Reuters.
    In 2005, the school had to fight allegations by a British rowing legend that its tough training regimes were on the verge of physical abuse of child athletes.
    The allegations made by Matthew Pinsent, a four-time gold medallist aired in the British media, revived controversy over the Shichahai sports school.
    In his report, Pinsent said children were 'in pain' while performing exercises and said that a vice principal acknowledged that corporal punishment occasionally occurred.
    The allegations and the subsequent denial are but the latest in recurring controversies over Chinese training practices.
    As one of over 200 model sports schools, Shichahai coaches more than 600 students in eight sports and at the same time provides them with basic general education.
    About half of the students pay their own way while the other half are the "professional reserves", who have all their training, academic and accommodation expenses covered to the tune of about 4,000 U.S. dollars a year each.
    Trials are held annually to bring in new athletes to replace those who fail to meet the required standards.
    With the exception of Hollywood martial arts star Jet Li, the reigning women's table tennis Olympic champion Zhang Yining is probably the most famous product of the school.
    For these star athletes, making it to the national team and international success brings fame and wealth.
    The best of the students from the country's sports schools join provincial teams as "registered state athletes" and the very best, like Zhang, join the national teams and represent China on the international stage.
    Twenty-four-year-old Zhang Yue was recruited on Shichahai's taekwondo programme from high school six years ago. He says the training schedule is hard but the school's track record and top-level training make it worthwhile.

    "Only the really good ones can come to this school. If you don't have a good record or if your level is not high enough, you can't make it in here. So I really value this opportunity," said Zhao.
    Even at the end of a long day of university lessons and four hours of punishing training, Zhao still manages a smile as he tells a group of Western journalists he hopes to be a world champion one day.
    At Shichahai, goals are set high.
    With five of the 32 gold medals won by Chinese athletes at the 2004 Athens Olympics being from former Shichahai students, the school is anxiously waiting to see how former pupils will fare on home soil this summer.
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