Beijing 2008 Olympics Continue: China’s sporting public still faces hurdles after Olympics
Gold medalist Zhang Yining, silver medalist Wang Nan, and bronze medalist Guo Yue, all of China, witness the Chinese national flag hoisting up at the awarding ceremony of the women’s singles of Beijing Olympic Games table tennis event in Beijing, China, Aug. 22, 2008. [Xinhua]
BEIJING – China’s Olympians have racked up a record gold medal haul, but many Chinese find it difficult to transfer their pride in the nation’s achievements to their own personal sporting fields.
For 29 year-old Bai Yang, going to the Beijing Workers’ Stadium for an Olympic football semifinal was one of his few sporting pleasures.
“I have little time to do sports on weekdays. At weekends, I’m just too tired to get out of bed,” said Bai, who lives and works in Beijing.
“Sports is not popular in China,” he said. “You can see the elderly doing morning routines in the park, but young people, who need exercise just as much, have no time or energy.”
Having roared ahead of every other country with 48 gold medals, China showcased its sporting prowess at the Games, but many still ask whether it has achieved the status of a great power in terms of sport for all.
For many Chinese interested in certain sports or living in less-developed areas, economic challenges and a lack of venues prove to be their biggest hurdles.
“There are only six standard softball courts in a city as large as Beijing,” says Sun Bojie, technical operations manager at the Fengtai Olympic softball field and a veteran umpire, complaining the game was failing to catch the public attention.
Moreover, fees for the available venues are “strikingly high”, further dampening interest, says China’s softball coach, Wang Lihong. “Even if the Chinese team had won gold this time, softball would still lack attention a month later.”
Sports resources are more scarce in the vast rural area and small cities of China.
Just over 8 percent of sports venues are in villages and towns, according to the last national survey conducted by China’s General Administration of Sport in 2004.
“China’s public sport development is unbalanced generally, especially between rural, underdeveloped areas and urban, prospering regions,” Liu Guoyong, deputy head of the GAS sport-for-all department, told a press conference in July.
He acknowledged government-backed resources still fell far short of public demand for sports and that conflict would continue for “quite a long period.”
Meanwhile, many note that Chinese gold medallists came from the countryside, a contrast highlighting the disparity between the rapid development in international competition and slow advance in sport for all.
Often cited is Chen Yanqing, the first ever woman to successfully defend an Olympic weightlifting title, whose parents are both fruit growers in a village in east China’s Jiangsu Province. Usually, the only sports facility in Chinese villages is the playground or basketball court of a local school.
“An advantage of the Chinese weightlifting team is our system, in which we identify, select and train athletic talents from primary to middle schools and from county level all the way to state level,” weightlifting team leader Ma Wenguang said after his team took eight golds in the first seven days of the Games.
This system has helped athletes in sports such as weightlifting, diving, table tennis and shooting, and enabled Chinese athletes to earn 17more golds than their closest followers, the United States, just a day before the Games end.
The gold haul showed the current state-backed athletic sports system was effective to a certain degree, said Wei Jizhong, former Chinese Olympic Committee general-secretary, on Thursday.
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