The Road to the Gold Medal - the Dark Side of Being a Chinese Athlete

The Road to the Gold Medal

The Dark Side of Being a Chinese Athlete

A Review of the Literature

Author Note

This paper was prepared for English 101

China´s economy had a strong development in last twenty years. One of the main reasons is the country’s success in sports. Since China is working on a globally unique sport system, their resulting success is extremely rapid. It is close cooperation with the government, which gives the opportunity to use a maximum resource of facilities for a better sport system. However, the system is increasingly criticized. The training conditions and treatment of young and old athletes is inhuman and seems illegal to other countries. Athletes’ lives are totally controlled by the government and it does not allow them to make their own decisions. Competitors are getting exploited by the government to help improve the country’s economy, which has made them one of the most powerful nations in the world. Getting abandoned after their athletic carriers without any support from the government is a part of the system.

        When most people think about Chinese athletes, they think of a strict training and solidly growing success. We also think of a crowded, disciplined and hard working population, or better-said, a machinery like population. These points are in fact not to far from the reality. China is a communist country, which means that the local government and Communist Party officials control and lead the whole nation, where the chance of self-development in sports or out of sport seems to be rare. Everyone works and trains for the government and struggles to unite and make the country proud to display proper national spirit (Beech, 2008, p.48). It also reflects a very competitive country. To step up and stand out, you need to invest even more energy, hard work, and commitment until you are stretched to your limits.  . The new continually developing sport system is inhuman and cannot continue to be used; it has to change.

In 1949, the People´s Republic of China established sports as the tool to express the representation and identity of the Chinese nation (Houlihan and Green, 2008, p.28). Since the 1952 Olympic games, the first games in which China participated, sports seemed to be a good way to help to restore the international position of China´s politics and boost their economy (Houlihan and Green, 2008, p.28). Houlihan and Green’s study shows that in 1956, the first foundations of a competitive sports system were established; rules, regulations and 43 official sport events were set up. Whereby China followed the Soviet Union´s spare-time sport system in the elite and mass sports developing. By September 1958, just two years later, 16,000 spare-time sports schools with 777,000 students throughout the state were built (2008, p.28). China was a poor country; however, more effort to invest in sports could be the most effective way to boom China and bring pride and hope for the whole country, a needful transformation. The whole country signified an embodiment of China´s political ideology, its administrative and management system, and a specialized and selective training system (Houlihan and Green, 2008,p.29). Consequently, all resources were concentrated towards their sports success in the Olympic games in order to be the leading country by the end of the twentieth century (Houlihan and Green, 2008, p.33). Their success was apparent.