by Charles Whelan
Tue Oct 16, 10:18 PM ET
BEIJING (AFP) - The coach of China’s world and Olympic champion Liu Xiang says he pities foreign athletes who have to struggle without the safety net of a state-run sports system.
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Sun Haiping, a member of China’s communist party and a delegate to this week’s party congress in Beijing, said the Soviet-style sports system had distinct benefits for athletes.
“Athletes basically don’t have to worry about a thing, as long as they do their training,” he said on the sidelines of the congress which opened Monday.
China established a system of sports schools in the 1950s designed to train world champion athletes from as young as six years old, aping the centralised programme introduced earlier by the Soviet Union.
Under the system, the state takes responsibility for the children’s welfare and houses, feeds and clothes them.
Liu, the world and Olympic 110m hurdles champion, joined a Shanghai sports school at age 12 and was trained as a high-jumper before being spotted by Sun and transformed into a hurdler.
“He came up through the sports school system and joined our (Shanghai) athletics team. So … everything he ever needs is given to him by the state,” said Sun.
“Food, clothing, a place to live, even things like health insurance, school and other expenses are all taken care of.”
Sun reckons that the Chinese athletes are able to focus more on their key function – training to win events – than foreign competitors who can be distracted by other matters.
“For Europeans and Americans, it seems to be pretty tough,” said Sun. "I feel sorry for them because they have to do a lot for themselves.
“Obviously I see them often because we are together a lot at competitions together overseas and they have to book their own hotel rooms, book their own flights and do all their own arrangements. Our athletes don’t have have problems like that.”
China’s elite sports system has been criticised by athletes and experts for employing harsh methods against young children, including beatings.
But Sun said that he had never even raised his voice, let alone used physical force against his athletes.
“If they get out of line I show my anger by silence,” he said. “I ignore them.”
Only once has Liu transgressed, by staying up late during an intense training spell as a teenager.
“He knew he was wrong and left me a note saying so the next day,” said Sun.
Liu became Asia’s first ever male Olympic track gold medallist in Athens in 2004 and broke the long-standing 110m world record last year before claiming the world title in Osaka in August.
Coach Sun also revealed that Liu’s world championship achievement, which underlined his status as China’s top sports icon alongside NBA star Yao Ming, was even more impressive than his growing legion of fans suspected.
Shanghai-born Liu, 24, was so ill that he needed an intravenous drip for several days before the August 31 race, and almost collapsed after the event.
“His condition was very bad,” said Sun of Liu, who was reported to be suffering from fever.
“For three days before the race he was on a drip because his health was very poor. After the world championships he almost had a physical collapse.”
Liu is China’s chief hope of an athletics title at next year’s Beijing Games.
Sun said Liu was now training freely and had recovered his health. The only thing Liu feared before August 8-24 Olympic Games was injury or ill health, Sun said.