Ana Sayfa English Inside China’s cruel ‘gold medal factories’

Inside China’s cruel ‘gold medal factories’

Yazar:

19 Mayıs 2016

Inside China’s cruel ‘gold medal factories’: Disturbing photos show school children in tears as they are pushed to their limits in the search for the next Olympic star

Images of China’s sports schools reveal the gruelling routines pupils are put through from as young as six
The schools have been popular since the 1980s as the country worked to create Olympic champions
But as demographics change in the country parents are becoming less willing to put their children into sports
A higher emphasis is being placed on education at schools rather than just focusing on sports.

Heartbreaking images of a child crying have emerged from a children’s sport school in China, where youth are placed in institutions designed to create Olympic champions.

It’s one of many pictures captured in sporting schools across China of young children being put through gruelling training routines at ages as young as six.

However, things are changing in the country as demographics shift and a larger focus is placed on different forms of education.

China’s sports system has been enormously successful since the country returned to the Olympic fold in 1980, culminating with the host nation topping the medals’ table at the 2008 Beijing Olympics with only a slight dip into second place behind the United States in London four years later.

Fewer parents are willing to let their children endure gruelling training routines, leading to a fall in student numbers. Some schools have closed and others are adjusting the way they work. The number of sport schools is down from 3,687 in 1990, government numbers show.

A coach wipes away tears and comforts a girl who was feeling tired during gymnastics lessons at the Shanghai Yangpu Youth Amateur Athletic School in Shanghai, China

Children, one of whom looks unhappy, practice handstands during gymnastics lessons at the Shanghai Yangpu Youth Amateur Athletic School

Girls do handstands during gymnastics lessons at the Shanghai Yangpu Youth Amateur Athletic School. China’s sports system has been enormously successful since the country returned to the Olympic fold in 1980

Students practice badminton at the Shichahai sports school in Beijing. China topped the medals table at the 2008 Beijing Olympics

Female students listen to their teacher in a boxing gym at the Shichahai sports school in Beijing. The school is adorned with posters extolling the feats of ex-students turned Olympic champions

Students at the Shichahai sports school attend a class. The poster reads ‘Learn from Olympic champions’

Fencing equipment is left in a training room at the Shichahai sports school in Beijing. The handles appear to be the same colours as those of the Olympic rings

A student who appears to have a bleeding nose and classmates practice taekwondo at the Shichahai sports school

Girls practice sit-ups during gymnastics lessons at the Shanghai Yangpu Youth Amateur Athletic School in Shanghai, China, earlier in May

Girls cheer for their friends who are having a competition practicing parallel bars during gymnastics lessons

At Shanghai’s No.1 Children’s Sports School Pudong New Area, the school’s party committee secretary, Huang Qin, said: ‘In the 1980s and 1990s, schools like ours were extremely attractive’.

The school’s alumni include former Olympians such as hurdler Chen Yanhao and female footballer Xie Huilin.

‘(But) parents are less willing now to send their child to sports schools if they perform fairly well in exams…The source of students for sports schools has shrunk as society placed more importance on cultural education.’

Debates about the continued relevance of the sports school system began to emerge around the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Huang and other schools said, as emerging tales of difficulties facing retired athletes jarred against rising expectations of education standards among China’s booming middle-class.

The country’s declining birth rate as a result of China’s one-child policy has not helped either, along with its cut-throat education system, which sees Chinese students spend twice as much time on homework a day compared to the global average.

Beijing responded to these concerns in 2010 by issuing a new policy, known as document 23, ordering sport schools to improve teaching standards and to give more support to retired athletes.

A girl practices during gymnastics lessons at the Shanghai Yangpu Youth Amateur Athletic School. ‘We call it happy gymnastics,’ said principal Zhu Zengxiang

Twin sisters wearing identical tights lie on a balance beam as they watch other children practice during gymnastics lessons

A boy’s face is contorted as he practices while his coach assists during gymnastics lessons

Girls run to a washroom during a break from gymnastics lessons at their school

Students at the Shichahai sports school line up after their table tennis training in Beijing

A girl stretches her leg to reach a balance beam during gymnastics lessons

A coach helps a girl during gymnastics lessons. With the Rio de Janeiro Games less than three months away, China’s sports system is beginning to break down due to the shifting demographics of a more prosperous nation. Some schools have closed and others are adjusting the way they work

Students practice fencing at the Shichahai sports school in Beijing. The school’s vice-head Zhang Jing said it offered ‘comprehensive development’ and equipped athletes with the skills needed for life after sport

Children play with a ball during a break in their gymnastics lessons at the Shanghai Yangpu Youth Amateur Athletic School in Shangha

At the No.1 Children’s Sports School Pudong New Area, Huang said it had improved its teacher training. Three years ago, it also relaxed a 40-year tradition of requiring its entire student cohort to study, train and live full-time on campus.

Now, more than half of the school’s 700 athletes study at other schools. Of its remaining 300 or so full-time students, about 10 percent live off-campus.

Other schools like the Shanghai Yangpu Youth Amateur Athletic School, are going into kindergartens to advertise gymnastics as an after-school play time activity to parents. ‘We call it happy gymnastics,’ said principal Zhu Zengxiang.

At Beijing’s Shichahai, adorned with posters extolling the feats of ex-students turned Olympic champions, vice-head Zhang Jing said the school offered ‘comprehensive development’ and equipped athletes with the skills needed for life after sport.

The Shanghai Sports School, whose alumni include former Olympic swimming champion Liu Zige, began in 2012 to reject athletes that did not pass its academic entrance exams, and tells parents it wants to use sports training to educate rather than as an end-goal, according to principal Sheng Maowu.

The government does not publish student enrolment at its sports schools, but there are signs that the changing landscape has already begun to impact China’s pool of sporting talent.

In April, the China Sports Daily reported that the number of Chinese athletes training to be table tennis players had fallen by almost a quarter since 1987 to 23,266.

Reform, however, is proving slow to take root.

But athletes like Wang Linwen, a 25-year-old former professional athlete who represented Shanxi province in wushu, a martial art, said reforms, no matter how little, were crucial for those still willing to enter sports schools.

For five years until she retired in 2009, her weekdays were spent training with only the weekends for studying, she said.

‘I lost a lot because I didn’t experience the education system,’ she said. ‘(Reform) is good, that way sports school students won’t come out knowing nothing.’

A group of students practice taekwondo at the Shichahai sports school in Beijing

Twin sisters wearing identical clothing practice during a gymnastics lesson at their athletic school in Shanghai

A boys lies on ground and stretches his legs during a break from gymnastics lessons

Students at the Shichahai sports school pass a poster featuring the school’s former students who became Olympic champions, before their classes in Beijing