Special report:
2008 Olympic
Games
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Rowers compete during the women's
lightweight doubles sculls preliminary of rowing at the 6th Chinese City
Games in Ezhou, a city of central China's Hubei Province, Oct. 31, 2007.
(Xinhua Photo)
Photo Gallery>>> |
By Sportswriter Gong Bing
WUHAN, Central China, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- Chinese
rowing first made its mark in 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games when Cao Mianying and
Zhang Xiuyun won women's double sculls silver medal. In the following nearly ten
years, China has never churned out any Olympic or even world champion.
However, China broke the ice by lifting three titles
in 2006 worlds and continued to add one gold and eight Olympic berths in the
2007 worlds. Despite that, Chinese rowing is still in predicament in terms of
sustainable development.
Liu Jian, head coach of Nanjing rowing team, said,
"This is well explained when you compare two numbers. China has a population of
1.3 billion, while in contrast, only 2000 people took up rowing. We did make
good record on the international arena in 2006 but we should also not neglect
the fact that we don't have a sound backup."
During the ongoing 6th Chinese City Games, 441 rowers
of 21 teams competed for twelve gold medals on stake.
"Only those from the national team caught our eyes,
"said Liu, "They have clear advantage over the rest."
Liu also specially tipped women's single sculler Zhu
Weiwei, former national team member, as promising.
"But she is still young and can not compete against
the other national team members." added he.
The rest rowers failed to impress Liu.
"China only has a total of 2000 rowers at senior and
junior levels, each with 1000 people." said Liu, "As the sport is not popular in
China, we don't receive much exposure and don't have many amateur rowers."
"The expensive equipment is another hurdle between
the sport and the public."
A singles boat usually costs 140 thousand RMB (about
18.74 thousand US dollars), and a boat for eight is about 400 thousand RMB
(about 53.55 thousand US dollars). Even a scull will cost about 10 thousand RMB.
"This makes it more hard for us to promote the sport.
Up to now in China, only several provinces like Guangdong, Jiangsu and Hubeiare
engaged in it."
In China, as water sport centers are usually on the
outskirts, water sports are featured with three "isolated", i.e., isolated from
home town, from relatives and from cities.
Since its unpopularity in China, rowing fails to
attract many athletes and sponsors.
"Actually most Chinese rowers don't initially take up
the sport, they usually start with athletics and swimming. For example, Zhu
Weiwei was an athlete." said Wang.
"Rowing originated from Europe and it has been part
of Europeans' culture and lifestyle, so it's understandable that they have quite
a few top rowers." added Wang.
"Moreover, we do not have a good knowledge of rowing
theories. We need to go to Europe to communicate with German and British rowers.
But in fact we don't have many chances for lack of funds."
In big contrast, as the Beijing Olympics is
approaching, Chinese national rowing team is granted with abundant funds.
But will the funds be
distributed for regional rowing development after the Games, and will the sport
develop sustainably? It's really hard to say.
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Rowers compete during the women's single
sculls preliminary of rowing at the 6th Chinese City Games in Ezhou, a
city of central China's Hubei Province, Oct. 31, 2007. (Xinhua
Photo)
Photo
Gallery>>> |
