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Beijing Olympics
August 22, 2008

Sports schools cultivate China’s future champions


Posted at 11:56 am by Michael Martina


Michael Martina (click to enlarge)
Gu Jingwen practices on the uneven bars at Xiannongtan Youth Sports School in Beijing.
Michael Martina (click to enlarge)
Han Siyu practices balance beam dismounts at Xiannongtan. Student-athletes at the school are China's Olympians in-training.
The host city for the 2016 Olympic Games has yet to be determined. So, set after set, as she spins around the uneven bars, young Gu Jingwen can only wonder where she might win her gold medal. Banners bearing the Olympic rings hang behind her, slogans urging her toward success. Powdered chalk is ground into the surface of the blue floor mats from years of hard landings.

Smiles aren’t as common as back flips at Xiannongtan Youth Sports School in south Beijing. Here, children as young as 4 years old enter a strict training regiment with one goal in mind: to become Olympic champions. During practice, there is little time for laughing and little leeway for tears.

With this years summer Games, Xiannongtan is celebrating its 50th anniversary of producing Olympic caliber athletes. At the gymnastics training facility, there is a proud tradition of forging champions. “Too many to count,” says the girls’ gymnastics team coordinator Mr. Yang. Among the many, He Kexin, China’s latest gold medalist in the uneven bars.

Similar schools dot China’s major cities, where, like tapping a plentiful natural resource, annual tests are held to discover athletic potential. If selected, the student-athletes join the ranks of those hoping to earn gold and national glory. They train at least three hours a day, living on campus with classmates who are China’s future contenders in nearly every Olympic event.

The current medal count for the Beijing Games is significant for two reasons. With sports serving as a metaphor, China is proving itself to the world. Perhaps of equal importance, the gold medal count is China proving itself to its own people. China’s national anthem urges its people to arise, to refuse to be slaves, to cast off the vestiges of victim-hood left by colonialism. In this Olympics, Chinese athletes are standing up. Here in China, they are making a statement. Future Chinese competitors, like those at Xiannongtan, will undoubtedly take note.
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