The Chinese government attaches a high value to sports and setting world records. The involvement of the authorities in the institution of competitive and vying sports is like of no other nation. The country christened its journey to the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics by securing the fourth spot. After that, in 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004 China has secured and maintained its position by staying in the first four positions. These outstanding accomplishments of the Chinese athletes have definitely helped the country in gaining standing in international sports.
Physical fitness has always held great regard in China’s conformist society where the state even has its own version of the Olympics – National Games of the People’s Republic of China, occasionally known as ‘All China Games’.
After a massive failure at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, the Chinese government decided that they need to do better and the state-run sports program launched a mission called ‘Project 119’ aiming to score most of the 119 gold medals in the Beijing Olympics.
It’s fair for a nation to dream of becoming Big Chief in sports at world stage, but China surpassed all rationale. Beijing has attracted all kinds of controversies regarding its ruthless determination towards sports and gymnastics in particular.
To fulfil the nation’s ambition of producing world champions and Olympics domination, there are several sports schools in China most of which are state-run with disapproving policies. China’s key athletic agency, the State General Administration of Sport, recognizes that the country’s coaches and athletes go through excruciating pains and labour for the ‘glory’.
There is an increasing promotion of underage competition in the State. On YouTube, there are countless videos where one can see little Chinese kids, as young as four years old, undergoing extensive regimented training every day for over ten hours, which is gruelling for even an average adult. Every one kid among 10 is undergoing this enervating fitness regime and is stretched to limits. If you ask this 5 million population of little Chinese kids, ‘Why do you train?’, they’ll all have only one answer – I want to win a Gold Medal and become a World Champion.
As it happens, most of these children don’t even know what the world champion means and are running after an acquired dream. Coaches of the state believe in corporal punishment and are of the view, a coach is like a parent to the athlete kids and it is completely ordinary for a parent to hit their child.
The repercussions of this harsh training surface in later years of youth and children are left with deformities in bones and osteochondral aches and at that time the shackles really start to bother. Many of these children are plucked from poverty-stricken families in rural areas. These children move away from their families at an early age for the most pragmatic logic – to build a better life for themselves and their families, knowing fully well that their chances of winning the medal are pretty slim.
The sports system in China is designed to win medals. The state is hardly concerned with the education of the kids enrolled in their state-run sports schools but at the same time takes a decent share of their income, the normal is around 65 per cent. After the Olympics, the athletes feel disposable as they lack proper education, skillsets and hence prospective career opportunities. The government support for them is limited. A Ci-devant champion, Zhang Shangwu was found begging on the streets of Beijing after his retirement and had sold all his medals for 13 dollars.
This is the reason the Chinese middle class drew back and demanded a reform in the existing established sports system amid the soaring education standards and called out.
In China, there is no severance between sports and the State- a true feature of a totalitarian dominion. The state is empowered to select the personal coach and also it is the ultimate discretion of the state to decide in which tournaments one can play. Also, an athlete is made bound to enter into China’s sponsored endorsement deals.
The state of affairs for athletes have always been repulsive for athletes but now that the young players have more avenues to communicate their voices, they are raising their plight through social media making sure the actions of their oppressive government come out in the open.
