Topic: News: 2008 Olympics News

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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China's sporting factory paying dividends

Beijing, August 13:  Born in the impoverished farmlands of central China, Long Qingquan began training as a nine year old weightlifter after a local coach identified him at a school playground as a potential champion.

Eight years later, relentless training was rewarded handsomely when the wonder boy won the 56 kilogram men's weightlifting title at the Beijing Olympics.

But Yang has paid a price by giving up much of his youth.

He has not seen his parents in the four years since he joined the national team, according to reports in the Chinese press.

Even during the years with local teams from Hunan province, he would return home just once every 12 months – for Chinese New Year - when his mother would grieve over the huge callouses on his hands.

However his father, a former farmer who was forced to join China's legions of ‘migrant workers’ and travel around the country in search of labouring work, would beam with pride.

"I thought this kid could really eat bitterness," Long Guanwu told the Chinese press of the yearly visits. "I thought this was good for him."

Such is the life of a Chinese Olympic athlete, for whom eating bitterness is as vital to success as exercise and stretching.

China's sporting factory begins with scouts scouring the nation for potential talent such as Yang.

After testing to determine their physical characteristics, they are funnelled into specialised training at elite sports schools from as young as 10 years of age.

Discipline is one of the strongest features of China's sporting machine, and reports of punishments for wayward athletes regularly make international headlines.

In 2006, table tennis star Chen Qi was fined, sent to a military boot camp and forced to do farm labour after he had a minor temper tantrum at an Asian Cup final in Japan.

"Only by experiencing the hardship of impoverished country life can he learn his mistakes," China's table tennis association said at the time.

"The principle is to treat the disease and save the person, and give a lesson to the whole team."

Chinese sports coaches are famous for stressing the importance of obedience, orderliness, respect and placing the needs of the team and country ahead of any personal desires.

The table tennis team, which has won 16 of a possible 20 gold medals at the last five Olympics since 1988 and is expected to dominate again in Beijing, is reputed to be one of the strictest in this respect.

In one other bizarre incident involving the table tennis team, Li Nan had to apologise to her teammates in 2002 and endure a public criticism after an official saw her wearing a mud-pack face mask to cleanse her skin one evening during the Asian Games in South Korea.

Her crime was that she was focusing on personal desires, instead of on winning.

China's sports officials and coaches have also jealously guarded the winnings of their athletes, claiming that the state has invested so much into their training that they should also share in the profits.

The system has further come under criticism for its failure to take care of the majority of athletes who are not so successful and often find it difficult to make a living after their careers end.

However China's sporting chiefs make no apologies for what has proved to be an enormously successful system in terms of medal hauls.

At Athens four years ago, China finished with 32 gold, 17 silver and 14 bronze medals to place second behind the United States, and after a blistering start in Beijing are a good chance to top the medal table.

"I doubt there will be any major reforms in the sporting system after the Olympic Games," vice minister of sports Cui Dalin said recently.

"The system has proven to be very successful so there is no need to make any major changes."

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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China's ex-athletes play key role at Games

A number of retired athletes have been given an opportunity to participate in the Beijing Olympic Games - as volunteers.

"Being a volunteer is a great honor," Zhou Xinyue, a former gymnast from Guangdong province, told Beijing Youth Daily Wednesday.

Zhou, together with seven others, is working as an usher at the gymnastic stadium.

They have to get to the stadium three hours before competitions begin.

"We have to learn the details of every event, our assignments, and areas of responsibility," Zhou said.

Zhou said now that she has retired, she was only too pleased to participate in sports in a different capacity.

She does not regret never having being selected for an Olympics.

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Former gymnast Chen Xi ushers the Chinese gymnastics team into the match venue on Tuesday August 13 2008. [China Daily]

Ding Bo, a former fencer, has been seconded to the fencing events to help out.

"The work is not easy," Ding said. "We have set up the platforms, and lead athletes and coaches to their correct locations during each event,"

Ding was a fencer for eight years and has taken part in numerous competitions. His experience and knowledge guarantees he is able to do a good job.

He works with 16 other volunteers.

At the weightlifting events, the volunteers added weights to the bar after each successful lift.

"We need to do it very quickly as each weightlifter has a set time to complete his or her lift. We do this about 80 times during a competition," Bao Ke, a former weightlifter, said.

Chen Xiexia, who won the women's 48 kg weightlifting gold a few days ago, was once a teammate of Bao's.

"Seeing Chen win made me very proud.

"Winning an Olympic medal was once my dream. However, I do not regret it never came true, serving as a volunteer is reward enough," Bao said.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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Clean and jerk woes doom Vaughn's dream
By Jenni Carlson

Konawa native Chad Vaughn came up short in his quest for an Olympic medal.

The weightlifter failed to complete a lift in the clean-and-jerk portion of the competition Wednesday.

After placing 17th at the Olympics four years ago, Vaughn finished at the bottom of the 77 kilogram weight class this time around.

Olympic weightlifting is a combination event. Each competitor does lifts in the snatch as well as the clean and jerk, then the biggest lift in each is combined for the lifter's total score.

Vaughn lifted 147 kilograms in the snatch, the 15th-best lift in that portion of the competition.

In the clean and jerk, he started out with 182 kilograms, failed to lift that twice, then failed to lift 183 kilograms on his third and final attempt.

"I'm really pretty OK with it,” Vaughn told USA Weightlifting.

"I feel good about going for it. I wanted to get as good of a placement as I could, and I really feel like I did the best I could.

"It's kind of an indication of how training has been going. My clean and jerks have just been way down from what they normally are.”

Vaughn wasn't alone in his struggles.

Defending champion Taner Sagir of Turkey was heavily favored, but he bombed out in the snatch and was eliminated.

Korea's Sa Jaeh-Youk won the gold with 163 kilograms in the snatch and 203 kilograms in the clean and jerk. China's Li Hongli had the same total weight of 366 but finished behind Jaeh-Youk because he had a higher pre-competition weigh-in.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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Muscles, mind games help in medal poker
By Sophie Hardach

BEIJING, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Think of it as poker with bells on. Barbells, to be precise.

Watching Olympic weightlifters plot their winning strategy is a fascinating mix of muscles, maths and mental strength, and as thrilling as any card game.

But the stakes here are much higher, as the latest accident in competition shows: Hungarian Janos Baranyai trying to snatch 148kg on Wednesday until his arm gave way in a gruesome twist that dislocated his elbow.

Anyone who thinks weightlifting is all brawn, no brain, should see the manoeuvring that goes on before and during a competition. The rules are simple -- three attempts in the snatch, three in the clean and jerk, and the highest results from each category produce the combined total. Contenders set their own entry weights.

Sounds easy? Well, look at Turkey's Nurcan Taylan, who competes in the 48kg bodyweight class. She won the gold medal in Athens and confidently set her entry weight at 84kg. Taylan failed to snatch that weight three times and was out before she even got to the clean and jerk.

Set your entry weight too low, however, and you might have wasted a lift that could have brought you closer to that elusive medal. After all, athletes did not train for this moment for four years just to take it easy on the mat.

MIND GAMES

Then there are the bluffs and mind games. Over the past few days, the large display hovering over the competition platform would suddenly show that the top contender had dramatically raised his or her targeted weight. A rival sees this, nervously ups their own weight, fails to lift it -- and the top contender will immediately lower the targeted weight again.

"There've been so many surprises, people started to misjudge lifts," said Sam Coffa, first vice-president of the international weightlifting federation.

"That's weightlifting, you start off with what you're going to think will happen but it's always different. Expect the unexpected."

When the targeted weights approach 200kg and the competition hall reverberates with primal screams and agonised groans, cool nerves can suddenly count for more than a track record.

In the 62kg class on Monday, a clutch of medal hopefuls panicked amid the fierce competition, went for weights that were too heavy and failed to execute the lifts. That left space for Colombian Diego Salazar, who had not been among the favourites, to pull past the others and win silver.

Sa Jaeh-youk from South Korea, who won the 77kg category on Wednesday, has his own strategy for keeping calm.

Asked if the failure of other South Korean lifters this week had worried him, he told reporters: "I tried to keep them out of my thoughts and since I'm a very simple-minded person to start with, that helped me keep my mind on the game."

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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China’s first gold fetches weightlifter $1m

Weightlifter Chen Xiexia, winner of China’s first gold medal at the ongoing Olympic Games will earn as much as 10 million yuan (about $1.42 million) for the feat.

Xiexia won the medal on Saturday in Beijing to the delight of an expectant and enthusiastic nation. But the Beijing-based Oriental Sports Daily has reported that the 25-year-old lifter will not be relying only on that as income from a variety of other sources is sure to make her a millionaire.

The sports newspaper said the General Administration of Sport of China, which oversees sports in the country, will award each Chinese medal winner a prize.

“Xiexia will receive 250,000 yuan (about $36,447), an increase of 50,000 yuan over what was given out to medal winners at the Athens Games of 2004,” the paper reported. That is however just the beginning of a money splash for the athlete, with awards from an individual athlete’s home province and other sources likely to be much more attractive.

The Fok Ying Tung Foundation, launched by a Hong Kong enterpreneur and philantropist, has awarded every Chinese gold medallist since 1984 one kilogramme of gold and 80,000 US dollars.

The Tide reports that Chinese athletes who earn cash rewards or other prizes as a result of success at the Olympic Games will be exempted from individual tax income.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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(BEIJING, August 13) -- Sa Jae-hyouk of the Republic of Korea ended China's six-for-six winning streak in Weightlifting after claiming a stunning gold in the Men's 77 kilogram category on Wednesday, August 13.

Earlier the same day, defending champion Liu Chunhong of China broke three world records en route to a Women's 69kg Weightlifting gold, propelling China's weightlifting gold tally to an historic high of six.

Liu lifted 128kg in the Snatch and 158kg in the Clean and Jerk to make it 286kg for the total weight, breaking all three world records. Russia's Oxana Slivenko, who held the world Snatch and total weight records, finished second in this competition at 255kg. Natalya Davydova of Ukraine got the bronze with a total of 250kg.

While Liu cruised through her Women's 69kg victory, the Men's 77kg was a much closer competition. Entering the tournament as an underdog, Sa triumphed by combining 163kg in the Snatch and 203kg in the Clean and Jerk for a total of 366kg. Li Hongli of China lifted the same total weight but fell short of the gold due to a higher pre-competition weigh-in.

"I can't even believe that I have won the Gold medal." said an exhilarated Sa. "(But) I was very confident. Before this event, during practice, I lifted 210kg."

"The Chinese lifter (Li Hongli) was very strong but I didn't want to lose."

Defending champion Taner Sağır of Turkey, who was heavily favored in the Men's 77kg weight class, bombed-out in the Snatch and was eliminated from competition.

Athens bronze winner Oleg Perepetchenov of Russia, who holds the Clean and Jerk world record, also failed to make the podium after a disappointing fifth place finish.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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Hatch Has Golden Plan for Young Weightlifter
By Emily Turner

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Gayle Hatch may have been raised in Baton Rouge, but he is known the world over as one of the most decorated contributors to the sport of weightlifting.

"I wear two hats really,” Hatch said. “I’m an Olympic weightlifting coach and a strength and conditioning coach."

But lifting weights wasn’t his first love. A multi-sport athlete at Catholic High, he went on to play basketball at the next level at Northwestern State, then professionally with the Chicago Majors. At the completion of his basketball career, he returned to the Red Stick to begin his weightlifting and strength training program.

"Our teams have won 47 national championships, team championships,” Hatch said. “We’ve had members of four Olympic teams.”

In 2007, Hatch returned to the hardwood by officially joining the LSU men's basketball staff, overseeing the training program with the primary focus of making forwards Chris Johnson and Anthony Randolph bigger and stronger. Both players are almost seven feet tall, but weighed less than 200 pounds.

Hatch accomplished the mission -- and the payoff was big. Johnson had his best year as a Tiger, and Randolph was the 14th overall pick in the NBA draft. It was a remarkable achievement, but not enough to make Hatch stay. He wanted to focus complete attention on long-time protégé Matt Bruce's dreams of capturing Olympic gold.

"I was in eighth grade at Catholic High and they started training me for football and trying to get me bigger and faster for football,” Bruce said. “Coach Hatch pulled me to the side and said ‘son, you have a real gift. I want to start training you for the Olympics.’”

"He has dedicated himself since he was 13 years of age,” Hatch said. “So when it got down to the last few months, I had to devote complete attention to the 2008 Olympic trials.”

Bruce among the world’s best at the start of 2008, making a strong showing in the Pan-American championships in March.

"I was number two in the nation, which means I was on the Olympic team,” Bruce said. “Going into the trials, I didn’t have a back seat. I knew it was going to be tough to keep my position and they were gunning for me"

In the end, Bruce fell short of securing a spot on Team USA. Sure it was disappointing for both Bruce and his mentor, but there is always 2012.

"We’re already back in training and the Olympics hasn’t even ended yet,” Bruce said. “I’m actually moving up in weight class, so I’m looking for bigger and better totals."

"He has a great heart,” Hatch said. “And he will be there in 2012, I can promise you."

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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S.Korean Jang Mi-ran to claim title of "world's strongest woman"

BEIJING, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- With the absence of major rival China's Mu Shuangshuang, South Korean Jang Mi-ran is highly expected to claim the title of the "world's strongest woman" at the Beijing Olympic Games here on Saturday.

Jang, 24, has an absolute advantage in the super-heavyweight category as she was ranked first with an entry total of 305kg, 20kg more than Ukrainian Olha Korobka, who was in the second place.

No one will pose a real threat to Jang in the event, which will start at 7 p.m. in the Beijing University Aeronautics and Astronautics gymnasium, as long as she normally performs.

Whether Jang will try to break a world record in the event may be the only mystery before the Games.

At present, three world records in the class are all held by Chinese lifters. Mu keeps the snatch and the total records, while Tang Gonghong holds the clean and jerk.

In Athens, Jang was defeated by Tang, who, in the intense competition, lifted a weight she had only hoisted once during training sessions. After Tang's retirement, Jang began to dominate the category when she won the 2005 world championships.

However, Jang has been facing persistent challenge from another Chinese Mu since 2005. She beat Mu in three consecutive world championships only because of bodyweight advantage, and Mu, world record holder, also triumphed over her once at the Doha Asian Games.

Under a rule that restricts each NOC's competitors to a maximum of four in women's event, China didn't enter for this category.

Jang's compatriot Sa Jae-hyouk won the men's 77kg on Wednesday, claiming the first weightlifting title at the Beijing Olympics for South Korea. It was the second Olympic weightlifting gold for South Korea.