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China eyes even greater sports alchemy in 2008
2004-08-21
Luo Xuejuan of China was crowned for the 100 metres breaststroke title at the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics on August 16th 2004 |
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ATHENS - The Chinese national anthem exhorts the masses to "Arise! Arise! Arise!" and China's 18 Olympic golds have already made it a regular at the Athens Games medals ceremonies.But if China's sports czars have their way, the 1930s war song will be the soundtrack of the Games in 2008, when the Olympic torch travels to the Chinese capital Beijing. "Athens is a rare opportunity for us to accumulate experience for the 2008 Olympics," said Chinese deputy delegation head Li Furong after the Games opened. "We've said that since Beijing won the bid in July 2001." The three key features of the Chinese team in Athens are "large-scale, multi-event and young faces," Li said, describing a policy of trading experience for youth and sacrificing medals now for a bigger payoff in front of 1.2 billion home fans in 2008. Many Sydney gold medallists, including table tennis winners, were left off squads in Athens to give their juniors experience. Athletes and coaches echo the policy from the medal stand. "If I am up here in 2008, I will actually be sad, because that means the younger generation has not come up to speed," said Zhang Jun, after he and partner Gao Ling defended their Sydney badminton mixed doubles Olympics gold. When some of China's favoured badminton players crashed out in early singles rounds, head coach Li Yongbo said: "The players who lost are still young and they have 2008 ahead of them." The youth development policy also aims to nurture gold medallists outside China's traditional strongholds in table tennis, badminton, diving and weightlifting. China divides Olympic events into three types: those in which China is a powerhouse, those in which China has growing potential and those in which China remains weak -- especially vis-a-vis chief medals table rival, the United States. DEFERRED GRATIFICATION Asked to give examples of sports with potential for China, team spokeswoman He Huixian said: "Fencing, rowing ... lots of things we're not already good at." China have grabbed a judo gold and two fencing silvers in Athens, while and Chinese players are making inroads in women's hockey, tennis and judo. Sports seen by China as their Achilles heel include athletics and swimming -- where doping scandals quickly ended a mid-1990s flush of success. Success in these events enabled the Americans to overtake China in the medals table after the first week. For that reason, Chinese team leaders say Luo Xuejuan's surprise gold in women's 100m breaststroke is the country's most important and inspiring title so far at Athens. "We are extremely proud of her and her coach," said He. With Beijing 2008 as their real target, the Chinese set a relatively modest goal of 20 golds for Athens -- four less than Sydney, and a number that would give them exactly 100 golds since the communist sporting giant joined Olympic competition in 1984. With 18 golds and more expected soon in men's and women's table tennis, China has struggled to make triumphalist media stay with the four-year deferred gratification programme. Chinese journalists sit in the press section, but wear team colours and cheer wildly like supporters. Sports officials have more than once told the Chinese media -- which like the athletes, work for the state -- to cut down on the gold medal hype. Even the American coach of China's basketball team, Del Harris, has had to fend off high expectations of his team of mostly teenagers built around NBA 7 ft 6 in giant, Yao Ming. "When we started this programme, we set a goal to build a team that would excel at the 2008 Olympic Games," he said. "But along the way, the whole thing turned around in the media's mind and it looked like we should win all our games in 2004." Reuters
Öйú°ÂÔËÃ÷ÐÇÃÇ´óɹ½¡¿µ¼¡·ô ÐÔ¸ÐдÕ漯Æعâ(×éͼ) (2008-06-30)China eyes even greater sports alchemy in 2008 (2004-08-21)Swimming-Breaststroke champion Luo ready for more (2004-08-16)China's Luo completes medal treble at swimming worlds (2001-07-28)
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