General Questions » PLA delegation, two-time Olympic r

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A group of kids sweat on the balance beam in the Fuzhou Sport School on Friday. Photo: CFP



Since returning to the Olympic Games in 1980 cheap hydro flask water bottle , China has won over 500 medals. In the 2008 Beijing Olympics, China led the world in the number of gold medals attained. Four years later in London, China was second in the gold medal list after the US.

However, on the eve of the Rio Olympic Games, the country's sports training system seems to be on the verge of breaking down.

Around 95 percent of China's Olympic gold medalists attended one of the country's 2,183 physical education schools. In 1990, there were 3,687 such schools.

Less and less parents want to put their children through such tough training, and some schools have been forced to shut down due to a lack of students.

Huang Qin (pseudonym), the Party secretary at a sports training school in Shanghai, said that this is the biggest challenge facing his school.

""In the 1980s and 1990s, schools like ours were attractive,"" said Huang. At that time, the subsidies and incentives offered by these schools were highly valued.

""However, if children can cope with school work, most parents these days do not wish to send them to sports schools. We're lacking students because society places more importance on academic education,"" Huang added.

The debate over the sports school system reignited around the 2008 Beijing Games. Many were concerned that retired athletes lacked the education needed to be successful outside the world of sport, and worried about the need to balance children's physical and intellectual education.

To tackle these problems, the central government demanded sports school raise the level of education offered to children and provide more help to retired athletes.

Shanghai Sports School has only taken in young athletes who pass cultural exams since 2012.

In China, the dogmatic ideology is that education and training are two separate routes. ""If you want to become a world champion, you couldn't study anything else. This is totally wrong. In this way, not many could reach the top,"" said the principal Sheng Maowu.

In March this year an official survey found that many sports schools were failing to invest enough in academic education and some had outright ignored the government's demands.




Girls perform gymnastics in front of the national flag. Photo: CFP

A boy swings on the rings in the gymnasium. Photo: CFP A young girl works on the balance beam. Photo: CFP

Child athletes nap in a dormitory of the Fuzhou Sport School. Photo: CFP

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Olympic table tennis champion Ma Long is facing arguably the toughest challenge of his career as his creaking body puts added strain on his title defense at the Chinese National Games in Tianjin this week.


The world No 1 is at the technical and mental peak of his powers after claiming Olympic gold in Rio last year. But the same can't be said for his physical condition.


Ma's coach, Zhang Lei, confirmed last week that injuries are troubling the two-time singles world champion, who's representing Beijing at the Games. And with three events (singles, doubles and team) to contend with, the 28-year-old's body will be pushed to the max.


"The old injuries to his hip joint and wrist are getting worse," said Zhang.


"They resurfaced in his training last week and he had to take cortisone injections and take some time off of training for recovery.


"If he goes deep in each event, he will have to play two or three matches each day and face stiff challenges physically."


Ma is reluctant to dwell on his injuries, saying on Sunday: "On the whole, I'm feeling alright and not quite worried about my injury troubles, but I have to say it's quite tough to play in the National Games and you have to play your best in every match in order to avoid early elimination."


Ma will consistently be up against more capable opponents in Tianjin than he faced in Rio, since most of the world's top-ranked players are from China but only the country's top two compete in the Olympics.


His chief rival for glory is 20-year-old world No 2 Fan Zhendong. Ma emerged victorious after an epic seven-set thriller between the two at this year's world championships in Germany, and also beat the youngster for gold at the last National Games, in 2013.


But Fan's coach in the PLA delegation, two-time Olympic runner-up and coach of the Chinese national team Wang Hao, reckons Fan is on the brink of a breakthrough.


"Ma is a master in skill and experience, so he was able to beat Fan in the world championship final in a seven-set showdown, but that defeat is helping Fan to build up his own experience in handling big events and key moments," said Wang.