How China Trains Its Children To Win Gold In Olympic Games

**dowcat** · August 1st, 2012, 07:39 PM

Torture or training? Inside the brutal Chinese gymnasium where the country's future Olympic stars are beaten into shape

Nanning Gymnasium in Nanning, China, is one of many ruthless training camps in China
Here children, some as young as five, battle to complete the demanding routines on bars, rings, and mats

By Matt Blake
PUBLISHED: 14:44 GMT, 1 August 2012 | UPDATED: 16:41 GMT, 1 August 2012

Her face etched with pain, a child trains for Olympic glory while her gymnastics trainer stands on her legs.
The cartoon space rockets and animal astronauts on her tiny red leotard are a stark and powerful reminder of this little girl's tender age as she trains as hard as any adult athlete in the Western world.

Nanning Gymnasium in Nanning, China, is one of many ruthless training camps across the country to which parents send their children to learn how to be champions.

Hard training: Her face etched with pain, a child trains for Olympic glory while her gymnastics trainer stands on her legs.

But while training techniques appear extreme to Western eyes, they provide an insight into why China's athletes at London 2012 seem so easily able to swim, dive, lift and shoot their way to victory.
Gymnastic stars are known for starting at an incredibly early age, and this group of children appear no different as they battled to complete the demanding routines on bars, rings, and mats.

Forging of the Mandarin mermaid: How Chinese children are taken away from their families and brutalised into future Olympians

Boys and girls who looked no older than five or six-years-old were tasked with swinging on beams, hanging from pairs of rings and bounding across floor mats during the physically strenuous training sessions.

Ruthless: Boys and girls who looked no older than five or six-years-old were tasked with swinging on beams, hanging from pairs of rings and bounding across floor mats during the physically strenuous training sessions

Growing strong: Nanning Gymnasium in Nanning, China, is one of many ruthless training camps across the country to which parents send their children to learn how to be champions

Going for gold: While training techniques appear extreme to Western eyes, they provide an insight into why China's athletes at London 2012 seem so easily able to swim, dive, lift and shoot their way to victory

Stretchy: Gymnastic stars are known for starting at an incredibly early age, and this group of children appear no different as they battled to complete the demanding routines on bars, rings, and mats

The youngsters at the same training school will be hoping to emulate the success of 16-year-old swimming sensation Ye Shewin, who glided into the record books on Saturday night.
Only last January harrowing photographs were posted on the internet showing Chinese children crying in pain as they were put to work.
In case they had forgotten why they were there, a large sign on the wall reminded them. ‘GOLD’ it said simply.
Charges are often taught by rote that their mission in life is to beat the Americans and all-comers to the top of the podium.

24/7 routine: A child stretches at home during a gymnastics training session in Nanning, China

T
o the top: Charges are often taught by rote that their mission in life is to beat the Americans and all-comers to the top of the podium

No nonsense: The trainers are tough on the children who go through rigorous training schedules

Home time: Children wait for their parents after completing a gymnastics training session in Nanning

Ye Shiwen astounded the swimming world by knocking more than a second off the world record for the 400m individual medley

Mission accomplished: Miss Ye poses with her gold medal on the podium. Ye insists that her 'results come from hard work and training'

Winning at all costs: Children are put through their paces doing punishing exercises to toughen them up

Children are trained at camps where the word 'gold' is hung on the wall to make them focus on success

Young boys and girls are put through their paces at the Chen Jinglun Sports School, the alma mater of Ye Shiwen

The school also trained Sun Yang, who won the 400m freestyle at London 2012

Ye's team-mate, 23-year-old Lu Ying, this week attacked China's grindingly repetitive coaching regime

A group of young boys await their turn in the pool

Read more: How China trains its children to win gold - standing on a girl's legs as young boys hang from bars | Mail Online

**Laurent** · August 1st, 2012, 07:43 PM

More than a few of these pics are beyond creepy.

**KrisNine** · August 1st, 2012, 08:05 PM

^^I'll say. These are some fucked up people.

**Jexxifer** · August 1st, 2012, 09:04 PM

What the ever-loving fuck? Photos like these remind me to be thankful I was born in the time and place I was.

*DIVA! · August 1st, 2012, 09:24 PM

Every four years this comes up and after the Olympics everyone forgets!!

**McJag** · August 1st, 2012, 11:44 PM

Doesn't work that well & I can see why. They have to be driven from within, not without. This just ain't worth it. Other countries who win are joyous, the Chinese look relieved.

**pinkbunnyslippers** · August 2nd, 2012, 07:21 AM

I think they have more fear, than being tough.

I was watching a program about a circus school, I think from China that was filmed in 2004. The way they trained them made me cringe at times. The kids were crying, got hurt, and of course they were told to toughen up. Here is the link. It's almost an hour long. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uH-jQN3Ln60

**DeChayz** · August 2nd, 2012, 10:13 AM

That first picture is just horrific!

**MsChiff** · August 2nd, 2012, 10:29 AM

Originally Posted by pinkbunnyslippers

I think they have more fear, than being tough.

I was watching a program about a circus school, I think from China that was filmed in 2004. The way they trained them made me cringe at times. The kids were crying, got hurt, and of course they were told to toughen up. Here is the link. It's almost an hour long. Circus School - YouTube

oh wow, I will watch this tonight -thanks for the link

**Brookie** · August 2nd, 2012, 10:34 AM

Someone on local sports radio this morning said that nobody told one of their female swimmers about the death of her grandparents because it might break her concentration to win gold. They died a year ago.

**witchcurlgirl** · August 2nd, 2012, 10:40 AM

What's that? A authoritarian government forces children into an abusive sports system? Kornelia Ender and Heidi Krieger are shocked!

*DIVA! · August 2nd, 2012, 11:01 AM

I think it was the Chinese divers who won Gold the other night and they didn't rejoice at all but the other teams were so elated!!

**MohandasKGanja** · August 2nd, 2012, 11:05 AM

Originally Posted by witchcurlgirl

What's that? A authoritarian government forces children into an abusive sports system? Kornelia Ender and Heidi Krieger are shocked!

Wow. Never heard about Krieger before. Here is part of the the Wiki entry:

Andreas Krieger (born Heidi Krieger on 20 July 1966 in Berlin) is a former German shot putter, who competed as a woman on the East German athletics team at SC Dynamo Berlin. Like many prominent East German sportspeople at the time,[1] Krieger was systematically and unknowingly doped with anabolic steroids

Krieger was systematically doped with steroids from the age of 16 onward. According to Werner Franke and Brigitte Berendonk's 1991 book, Doping: From Research to Deceit, Krieger took almost 2,600 milligrams of steroids in 1986 alone—nearly 1,000 milligrams more than Ben Johnson took during the 1988 Summer Olympics.
As early as the age of 18, Krieger began developing male characteristics. Eventually, years of doping left him with many masculine traits. By 1997, Krieger underwent sex reassignment surgery and changed his name to Andreas.[2] Krieger had "felt out of place and longed in some vague way to be a boy" even before receiving hormonal treatments, and said in a 2004 New York Times interview that he was "glad that he became a man". But he was also upset that receiving hormones without his consent deprived him of the right to "find out for myself which sex I wanted to be."[3]
Krieger gave evidence at the trial of Manfred Ewald, leader of the East German sports program and president of the East German Olympic committee and Manfred Hoeppner, East German medical director in Berlin in 2000. He testified that the drugs he had been given had contributed to his transsexuality.[citation needed] Both Ewald and Hoepner were convicted of accessory to the intentional bodily harm of athletes, including minors.
Krieger was forced to retire in part due to experiencing severe pain from lifting massive amounts of weight while on steroids. Even today, he has severe pain in his hips and thighs, and can only withstand mild exertion.
The "Heidi Krieger Medal" (German: Heidi-Krieger-Medaille), named after Krieger, is now awarded annually to Germans who combat doping. Krieger's gold medal from 1986 forms part of the trophy.

**pinkbunnyslippers** · August 2nd, 2012, 11:42 AM

Originally Posted by MsChiff

oh wow, I will watch this tonight -thanks for the link

You're welcome. I was flipping the channels about a year ago and caught it, and was glued to the TV. Then I was lucky enough to catch it again a few months ago.

**MrsDark** · August 2nd, 2012, 12:10 PM

My motivation would be defection. You get good enough and famous enough...or even just lucky enough to make the right connections in the sport...and you can make that happen.