China left running on empty in wake of Ma's Army
By Ashling O'Connor
The infrastructure of atheletics is a shambles. Our correspondent reports in the second of a three-part series on Beijing's preparations for the 2008 Games
IN SUMMER, the province of Daxing, 50 kilometres southwest of Beijing, is renowned for its water melons, producing more than 200 million kilograms of the fruit each year. None grows on the snowcovered plains at this time of year. Instead, tucked between desolate fields whipped by a bitterly cold wind, China is cultivating future Olympic champions.
About 30 male and female athletes are nearing the end of a 14-kilometre run around a ragged track within the Railway Ministry Sports Training School, which is heavily guarded at the gate. Hu Rong, the national team head coach, shouts encouragement before clocking them home on his stopwatch. A group of pigeons flies overhead in tight circles under instruction from a man with a long cloth whip. It is a near-perfect imitation of events on the ground, adding to the eeriness of the surroundings.
Despite temperatures that immediately numb the extremities, Hu is not wearing gloves. His frenzied gesticulating during training may explain why. Hu is a man under pressure. Track and field in China is in a shambles. A decade after Ma Junren’s female middle and long-distance runners exploded on to the international scene, obliterating world records, China is an athletics nobody.
With few success stories to promote since then, the Chinese Government has made track and field one of its top priorities, alongside swimming, before the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. It has not escaped the attention of Communist Party leaders that these disciplines alone count for 119 of the available gold medals.
If China wants to improve on third place in the medals table at the Sydney Games in 2000, it will have to produce athletes capable of competing for the top spots in these sports. Historically, apart from the blip in the 1990s, it has enjoyed little success. Without setting its coaches and administrators up to fail, the Government has let it be known that it wants China to excel in the showcase events and add to its Sydney medal haul of 59.
Feng Shuyong, assistant director of track and field, said: “Winning 28 gold medals was even a surprise for the big bosses. There is no more potential in those events, so if China wants to get more medals it must be in track and field and swimming.”
That will not be easy. For a start, the Asian physique imposes natural limitations on speed and strength when compared with the taller and broader builds of Europe, the United States and Africa. “It is very difficult for Chinese men to get good results,” Feng, also an international sports lecturer, said. “The American training system is not as good as in China, but they are so talented. The composition of the body is quite different. If only I had athletes from the States.”
China’s obvious physical disadvantage engenders a healthy degree of scepticism from international observers over whether past successes have been achieved cleanly. Only 18 months ago, three Chinese athletes were banned for two years by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) for taking performance-enhancing drugs. High-altitude training camps and a diet of turtle blood and caterpillar fungus make for a good story, but they do not fully account for the remarkable rise and rapid fall of “Ma’s Family Army”.
Six of his runners, including Dong Yanmei, the former 5,000 metres world record-holder, were dropped by China’s Olympic squad before the Games in Sydney because of doping concerns. More have since tested positive for banned substances. Mention drugs to a Chinese sports administrator and you get a stock answer that amounts to “it is not a problem unique to China, we have it under control”. “Our attitude towards doping is very clear. We have strict regulations to ensure clean competition,” Li Yua, head of the national swimming team, who admits he is under a lot of pressure to get results, said. “If any swimmer takes drugs, we will take severe measures to prevent them damaging the sport. Not only swimmers but coaches, too.” Still, China has recorded more positive tests for steroids than any other country. Meanwhile, banned coaches continue to resurface in the domestic system.
Chinese athletes face random out-of-competition tests as well as standard IAAF testing during the 20 domestic events, according to Feng. He has his own theories as to why athletics is at such a low ebb just as the spotlight is on China after its successful bid to host the 2008 Games. “The taller boys and girls who would make good runners or jumpers want to play basketball or volleyball, which are not as monotonous as athletics,” he said. “It is really hard work to run 30 kilometres or 40 kilometres a day and you have to be tough.”
This may be true to an extent. Ma’s training scheme fell to pieces when his women runners, of peasant stock, rebelled against his methods and his practice of keeping their financial gains for himself. They claimed their spoils and stopped punishing their bodies with a regime that included a daily marathon.
China’s one-child policy could also be partly to blame. “Most parents do not want their only kid to be involved in sports. They want them to get an education and a job,” Feng said. “Luckily we have a big population. It is a question of finding the talent.”
But these explanations do little to shake the feeling that past success was artificially gained. Ma now coaches in the northern province of Liaoning and his relations with the sport’s central administrators are strained at best because of his uncompromising style. However, despite concerns about doping, he still has an input at national level, mainly because China has so far not found another winning formula.
China has admitted that it needs outside help and plans to court coaches from Russia, particularly for pole vaulting and the high jump, just as it has done for fencing. Foreigners also hold posts in football (Arie Haan, the Dutchman), cycling, archery, synchronised swimming and trampolining. “We will also be sending more athletes to the European events so they can compete at the top level,” Feng said. “It is important to give them more exposure to the world.”
His biggest task is to rebuild the national team, which disintegrated two years ago. There are some rays of hope: Sun Yingjie in the 5,000 metres, 10,000 metres and marathon; Gu Yuan, 22, a hammer thrower who won gold at the World Cup in Madrid; Huang Qiuyan, a 23-year-old triple jumper with a personal best of 14.72 metres; and Wang Liping in the 20-kilometre walk. However, these are all women. There is no national men’s team at all.
Neglect of the sport’s infrastructure means heavy investment will be required. Hu has poor facilities with which to work. The track in Daxing is made of unforgiving concrete and has no lanes. The athletes run on a border cleared of snow on the grass oval.
Chen Zhen, 18, from the central Hunan province, is one of those selected for the national team for the 1,500 metres and 5,000 metres. “Comparatively, the facilities are better back home, but the training level here is much higher because of the competition,” she said. “It is very important to be here.”
Although there are five years to go before China hosts the Games, the target of excellence in athletics looks unattainable, although dominance of Asia is secured. Its administrators are not overambitious in public, saying that they expect no more than one or two gold medals and must win them cleanly. “Fair play is important even if we do not win medals,” Feng said.
In truth, however, Hu and Feng know that China is aiming high. “It takes a little more to make a champion product” are the words emblazoned on Hu’s baseball cap. The world will be watching closely to see if that little bit more is within the rules.
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