Torture or training?
Inside the brutal Chinese gymnasium where the country's future Olympic
stars are beaten into shape
By Matt Blake
PUBLISHED: 14:44 GMT, 1 August 2012 | UPDATED: 16:41 GMT,
1 August 2012
Her face etched with pain, a child trains
for Olympic glory while her gymnastics trainer stands on her legs.
The cartoon space rockets and animal
astronauts on her tiny red leotard are a stark and powerful reminder of
this little girl's tender age as she trains as hard as any adult athlete in
the Western world.
Nanning Gymnasium in Nanning, China, is
one of many ruthless training camps across the country to which parents
send their children to learn how to be champions.
Hard training: Her face etched with pain, a child trains for Olympic
glory while her gymnastics trainer stands on her legs.
But while training techniques appear
extreme to Western eyes, they provide an insight into why China's athletes
at London 2012 seem so easily able to swim, dive, lift and shoot their way
to victory.
Gymnastic stars are known for starting at
an incredibly early age, and this group of children appear no different as
they battled to complete the demanding routines on bars, rings, and mats.
Boys and girls who looked no older than
five or six-years-old were tasked with swinging on beams, hanging from
pairs of rings and bounding across floor mats during the physically
strenuous training sessions.
Ruthless: Boys and girls who looked no older than five or six-years-old
were tasked with swinging on beams, hanging from pairs of rings and
bounding across floor mats during the physically strenuous training
sessions
Growing strong: Nanning Gymnasium in Nanning, China, is one of many
ruthless training camps across the country to which parents send their
children to learn how to be champions
Going for gold: While training techniques appear extreme to Western
eyes, they provide an insight into why China's athletes at London 2012 seem
so easily able to swim, dive, lift and shoot their way to victory
Stretchy: Gymnastic stars are known for starting at an incredibly early
age, and this group of children appear no different as they battled to
complete the demanding routines on bars, rings, and mats
The youngsters at the same training
school will be hoping to emulate the success of 16-year-old swimming
sensation Ye Shewin, who glided into the record books on Saturday night.
Only last January harrowing photographs
were posted on the internet showing Chinese children crying in pain as they
were put to work.
In case they had forgotten why they were
there, a large sign on the wall reminded them. ‘GOLD’ it said simply.
Charges are often taught by rote that
their mission in life is to beat the Americans and all-comers to the top of
the podium.
24/7 routine: A child stretches at home during a gymnastics training
session in Nanning, China
To the top: Charges are often taught by rote that their mission in life
is to beat the Americans and all-comers to the top of the podium
No nonsense: The trainers are tough on the children who go through
rigorous training schedules
Home time: Children wait for their parents after completing a gymnastics
training session in Nanning
Ye Shiwen astounded the swimming world by knocking more than a second
off the world record for the 400m individual medley
Mission accomplished: Miss Ye poses with her gold medal on the podium.
Ye insists that her 'results come from hard work and training'
Winning at all costs: Children are put through their paces doing
punishing exercises to toughen them up
Children are trained at camps where the word 'gold' is hung on the wall
to make them focus on success
Young boys and girls are put through their paces at the Chen Jinglun
Sports School, the alma mater of Ye Shiwen
The school also trained Sun Yang, who won the 400m freestyle at London
2012
Ye's team-mate, 23-year-old Lu Ying, this week attacked China's
grindingly repetitive coaching regime
A group of young boys await their turn in the pool
===============================================
Just how far the Chinese go to win gold: Parents reveal devastating
family secret they kept for a year so diving star daughter wasn't
distracted from Olympic event
By Leon Watson
PUBLISHED: 01:18 GMT, 2 August 2012 | UPDATED: 01:33 GMT,
2 August 2012
Winning an Olympic gold should be a
moment of great joy for any athlete at London 2012.
But for Chinese diver Wu Minxia securing
her golden hat-trick on Sunday at the Aquatic Centre in east London was
followed by shock and sadness.
Straight after a triumph in the women's
Synchronised 3m Springboard that made her a legend in her sport, the
26-year-old's family decided it was the right time to tell her a
devastating family secret.
Tinged with sadness: Minxia Wu of China celebrates her gold medal in
women's Synchronised 3m Springboard. She was then told the devastating
secret
They admitted to their daughter that her
grandparents died - over a year ago. And instead of telling her, they kept
it back.
Wu's family also revealed that her mother
had been battling breast cancer for several years, something Wu had no idea
about.
The reasoning was clear: they wanted her
to win at all costs and didn't want family matters to interfere with her
diving career.
Wu, who with teammate He Zi won the last
two synchronised gold medals in Athens and Beijing, was an overwhelming
favourite to win gold again and successfully lead China's quest to unite
every Olympic and world diving gold medal.
She was under intense pressure to succeed
- and so were her family.
Father Wu Yuming said: 'It was essential
to tell this white lie.'
Wu Minxia of China, left, was told her mother had been battling breast
cancer for several years, something she had no idea about
China's Wu Minxia and He Zi dive during the springboard diving event at
the London 2012 Olympic Games
Wu began diving training at the age of
six, and left home at 16, bound for a government aquatic training
institute.
She is one of her sport's brightest
stars, and part of that is thanks to the price paid by her personal life.
'We accepted a long time ago that she
doesn't belong entirely to us,' Wu Yuming told the Shanghai Morning Post.
'I don't even dare to think about things
like enjoying family happiness.'
Wu's mother defended her decision by
saying she decided to wait until her breast cancer was in remission before
breaking the news to her daughter of her condition.
The admission has sparked a debate in
China over the country's win-at-all-costs mentality when it comes to the
Olympics.
The pursuit of success has been publicly
chased by the government-backed sports national sports program with
unshakeable zeal over the past two decades.
In a country where messages of
congratulations from the government to athletes through the state news
agency are only sent to gold medalists, not those winning silver or bronze,
there now there seems to be a backlash against this mentality.
After the revelations about Wu followed
fierce criticism from a national newspaper when a 17-year-old weightlifter
failed to medal.
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3 comments:
hahaha, i guess, ppl were trained to win at d olympics at watching blue and wank events...lol!
Well said Kee! Whenever an Asian, especially Mainland Chinese, dominates in a sport that's traditionally dominated by the whites, they cry foul and accuse others of cheating. To me these white trash just can't seem to understand what losing is about. The Yanks and the Poms are the worst and the white Aussies are no better! All you have to do is just to hear their commentaries on the telecast. They are but just sore losers!
This pain is not worth for the gold. Very bad on small kids!!.
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