China rethinks sporting obsession ahead of Rio Olympics as society puts focus on studies
Parents are less willing to subject their children to gruelling training at military-like sports schools as they chase economic opportunities
Change is unfolding at Shanghai’s No 1 Children’s Sports School Pudong New Area, a small cog in a state-run machine that has churned out Chinese Olympic champions for three and a half decades.
The source of students for sports schools has shrunk as society placed more importance on cultural education
China’s sports system has been enormously successful since the country returned to the Olympic fold in 1980, culminating with the host nation topping the medals’ table at the 2008 Beijing Olympics with only a slight dip into second place behind the United States in London four years later.
And yet, with the Rio de Janeiro Games less than three months away, the system is beginning to break down because of the shifting demographics of a more prosperous nation.
It poses a big challenge to the school’s party committee secretary, Huang Qin, whose institution is one of 2,183 around the country producing 95 per cent of the country’s Olympians.
Fewer parents are willing to let their children endure gruelling training routines from as young as six years of age, leading to a fall in student numbers. Some schools have closed and others are adjusting the way they work. The number of sport schools is down from 3,687 in 1990, government numbers show.
“In the 1980s and 1990s, schools like ours were extremely attractive,” Huang said, recalling a time when families were poorer and generous sports subsidies were more highly prized.