Chinese people cheer their athletes at the Beijing Olympics
China won an astonishing number of gold medals, 51, surpassing the United States’ gold haul of 36 and surprising even its own public. Chinese commentators have been elated by the victories. Some have described the country’s show of sporting dominance as a metaphor for its larger global ambitions.
Yet a fair number have called too for a change in the state-sponsored sport system that relies on weeding out talented children and training elite athletes at the expense of wider participation in sports. “China’s performance in collective sports like football and volleyball that represent the overall strength of national fitness and sports participation, has been appalling,” bemoaned commentator Zhong Fuchun in the Beijing News.
But the sports powers of the day have defended the status quo of the centralised sports system as the only viable way for China to make its mark. “In China there are so many sports that are not mature enough yet to face the market, Wei Jizhong, member of the Olympic organising committee told the media. “Government funding is still very important in promoting them”.
Others have gone even further to warn the Chinese sports administration not to mull any radical market reforms. Pointing at Russia’s alleged “lackluster Olympic performance” (the country ranked third in the number of gold medals), some Chinese officials have pinned it down to the demise of its Soviet centralised sports system and Moscow’s “premature adoption” of market approaches to the training of athletes. “China mustn’t follow that path,” sports official Feng Yi told the China Business Journal.
