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In China, the gymnasts often are sent to sports schools as children, sometimes as young as 4 or 5. They leave their families and their normal lives behind.
There, they train for hours every day and are taken care of by women who serve as surrogate parents. They eat in cafeterias, where they often use one bowl and one plate, washing them after every meal. They sleep in communal bedrooms, often in bunk beds. If they are lucky, the young ones see their parents on weekends, but that is not guaranteed.
Though the system is trying to change, many sports schools still focus on sports over everything else. Education often is secondary.
Bela Karolyi, the former coach of gymnastics legends like Mary Lou Retton and Nadia Comaneci, said that kind of centralized training system is on its way out.
“They are living, training and breathing in the training camp and, sure, that’s efficient, but the world is moving forward,” Karolyi said. “I wouldn’t give it another Olympic cycle. I think this type of preparation will be eliminated forever, even in a place like China.
“Can you imagine if we plucked our girls out of their homes when they were 5 or 6, then kept them and trained them never let them go home?” he said. “In America, that just would not happen, never. We’d have a hundred lawyers knocking on our door because it does not work that way. For us, this system works the best.”
大概意思是说中国女子体操队员,一般4,5岁就被送去体校,每天都要训练,吃住都在那里,往往几年都回不了家,在美国是不可能的,如果你这么做,那么上百个律师就要敲你家门了。 |
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