OpinionChina must help Yao Ming realise his dream of building ‘student-athletes’ like the US
- There are an estimated 20 million university students in China but most have to make tough choice if they want to pursue sports over studies
- Similar number in US colleges where sport feeds NBA and NFL
The life of many young people in China is akin to a Choose Your Own Adventure book. Divergent paths lay ahead of them, especially those who show aptitude in both school and sport. Turn to page 61: pursue a career in academia. Turn to page 9: drop your studies and focus on sport.
There are estimated to be in the region of 20 million university students in the country. To put that number in perspective, that’s bigger than the population of more than 100 sovereign countries. It’s a number that makes the sporting achievement of China’s students all the poorer.
The choice between sport and studies is partly a legacy of the state-sponsored sporting system that hothoused young talent from as soon as they could be earmarked for a particular sport. In fairness, it’s a system that has brought China more gold than Midas at the Olympics
But it’s a system that is outmoded. China’s burgeoning middle classes have grown up not really having to make such choices. Extracurricular activities have become increasingly important, if not quite equal to scholastic achievement, and sport is chief among them as the country battles childhood obesity and looks to achieve Xi Jinping’s World Cup dreams.
The projected number of students in US colleges for this year was similar to China, 19.9 million according to the National Centre for Education Statistics, but there is a vast difference. Many of those enrolled will be student athletes, populating the teams in the 23 sports that are organised by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).