UNIT 10 LIS 1 TRAINING CHINESE ATHLETES

Host: Good morning. Welcome back to Topic Talk. I'm Ben Irwin and my guest today is Jacinta
Muñoz, a writer currently working on a book about youth sports. She's just returned from several
months in China, investigating what made the athletes on the Chinese Olympic team so good so
quickly. Is there something American athletes could learn from their example? If you've competed
in a sport, if you are the parent of an athlete, or if you are just interested in this topic, wed love to
take your calls later in the show. So, Jacinta, why did you decide to learn more about the Chinese
training system?

Jacinta Muñoz: A couple of reasons. First, I think we've all seen how the Chinese athletes have
come out of nowhere in the last twenty years or so and have started to (1) ____________ in a
number of sports. Just look at the 2008 Olympics, where their gymnasts won so many medals. But
I have a personal interest as well. When I was younger, I was a pretty good gymnast myself, and I
wanted to see how the Chinese training methods (2)________ from the ones I used.

Host: "Pretty good?" You're much too modest. You made the Olympic team in 1996, didn't you?

Muñoz: I did, but unfortunately, I was badly injured the month before the Games began, so I
never actually competed in them.

Host: It was a knee injury, wasnit it?

Muñoz: Yes, I was coming off the balance (3)______, and I injured my knee. I just (4)__________. The
doctors couldn't fix it well enough to compete again, so I had to retire from gymnastics
altogether.

Host: Hmm. That must have been so disappointing, to really be at the (5)______ of your athletic
career and have to retire.

Muñoz: It really was. I had trained for years with that one goal in mind--making the Olympic
team- and I gave up a regular childhood, so it was a crushing blow at the time.

Host: It seers to me that training for any sport at the highest level is pretty tough, but gymnastics
is particularly brutal.

Muñoz: Well, I think at that level of competition in any sport its probably the same: long hours,
the intensity of the schedule, and many sacrifices. For example, I think I missed out on a lot of the
fun activities most high school students participate in. But I think gymnastics is a little different
because competitors are so young.

Host: So gymnastics is probably similar around the world in that the athletes start very young. But
in China, you found out athletes in many other sports are also starting their training at a young
age, didnt you?

Muñoz: Yes. What's interesting about the Chinese system is it's a bit like the old Soviet system in
that talented athletes are identifed when they are small children, and they are usually sent to train
at a special school provided by the government. As a result, they often don't see their parents for
months or even vears. Their (6)_____________ in the United States, on the other hand, are often
encouraged by their parents to stick with a sport. The parents are usually the ones making it
happen, by taking their kids to practice, paying a lot of money for special trainers, and so on.

Host: Living away from home and family at such a young age must be very hard on the athletes.
Why do they do it?

Muñoz: There are many benefits of this system. The Chinese children have all of their physical
needs met, from housing to food and clothing to training costs to medical care--it's all paid for by
the government. In the United States, young athletes and their families have to foot the bill.
Sometimes, if they're very good, the athletes can get funding from other sources, such as
companies or individuals that want to invest in their athletic careers. In general, though, it's up to
the parents to pay for everything. But in China, there's no need for private investment.
Government funding is integral to the whole system.

Host: Why is training athletes so important to the government?

Muñoz: Susan Brownell, an anthropologist who has lived and studied in China off and on for
several decades, has concluded that for the Chinese, sports have been a way to open up. Sports
are the first areas in which the Chinese provided (7)___________, or rewards, for performance. They
are proud of their athletes and want their athletes to represent the country on the world stage.
They want to their athletes to excel. Susan Brownell says that in the U.S. we raise our children to
excel-10 try to be number 1-and we teach them to share. So in our sports training, athletes need
to learn how to work together. Picture a child in the U.S. playing with a ball in the schoolyard. We
often have to teach the child that it's important to share the ball. On the other hand, in China,
they raise their children to share, and so they train them to excel. Humility is very important in
Chinese culture. It's not good to stand out. But when athletes compete, they need to be better
than others. They need self-confidence. So much of their training is focused on building self-
confidence and on becoming faster, stronger, and better. As part of this process, individual
provinces start selecting (8)___________ athletes from the elementary schools, and they train them
to compete. Only about 80,000 of the hundreds of thousands of children selected will make it to
the national training center. And that will take them years.

Host: How are the children selected? Is it on the basis of their performance in the sport so far?

Munoz: Not really. The recruiters are usually looking for body types. For example, children with
small hips and flexibility are chosen for gymnastics and diving, whereas tall children are selected
for basketball and volleyball. Some children are sent for training before they've ever even played
the sport. But once they get there, they train for six hours a day, six days a week. As a result, they
can get very good, very fast.

Host: Is it worth it?

Muñoz: Many athletes think so, since they get a chance to go to school, travel, and compete.
Remember, often these children come from rural communities where they don' have as many
options as those in larger cities. But the real (9)_____________ of the system may be China itself. In
just 20 short years, China has gone from winning five medals in 1988 to one hundred in 2008, the
second highest total. It's really the beginning of a new era for Chinese sports.

Host: Now we'll open the phones to take some of your calls. We've got lames from Madison on
the line. Hi, James. What's your question?