Chinese Coaches Training Athletes Around the World

AUSTRALIAN Chantelle Newbery, the 10-meter platform diving gold medal winner at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, was very excited when she received the medal and let a reporter in on a secret. “I would not have won this gold medal had I not been trained by my coach Wang Tongxiang over the past nine years. Diving is not an advantageous event for Australia, and it is all because of my coach Wang’s hard work that I’m able to win this gold medal. I am very grateful to him. Thank God that I was given the opportunity to be trained by such an excellent and outstanding coach,” she said.

Wang Tongxiang was formerly a coach on the Chinese diving team, and he helped the then head coach Xu Yiming to train many world champions, including universally well-known athletes such as Gao Min and Xiong Ni. Fourteen years ago, Wang immigrated to Australia, becoming the head coach of the Australian diving team and training several outstanding athletes, including Chantelle. Over the past 50 years, China has sent out a total of 2,547 coaches in 36 events at the invitation of 123 countries and regions.

Helping Developing Countries

According to Liu Peng, director of the State Sports General Administration, China sent out the first team of coaches to Vietnam as an aid program in 1957, and from the 1950s to the early 1980s, China dispatched many coaches to developing countries free-of-charge each year with allocated funds from the Chinese Ministry of Finance. China has sent out 2,324 coaches to 88 developing countries and regions in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and many athletes have achieved great success under the guidance of Chinese coaches.

In 2004, for example, the Vanuatu table tennis team won the first table tennis gold medal in its history at the South Pacific Games under the guidance of Chinese coach Liu Minzhong. In 1988, Chinese badminton coach Fang Kaixiang led the Malaysian badminton team, who beat the world’s strongest badminton team, Indonesia, and won the silver Thomas Cup.

Chinese gymnastics coach Su Shiyao coached for 10 years in Kuwait, and athletes trained by him won the group championship and seven gold medals in men’s events at the Second Arabian Gymnastics Championship in 1983, which broke records for the number of medals won in a world sporting event in Kuwait and the Arab world. In the 1990s, another Chinese gymnastics coach, Huang Jian, was invited to Jordan to instruct its gymnasts. He originally planned to stay there for only one year, but finally extended it to six, becoming known in Jordan as the “Father of Gymnastics.”

Yao Murong was the first Chinese diving coach sent to Thailand in 1989. He worked there for 14 years, and athletes trained by him won 15 gold medals in the Southeast Asian Games, one gold medal and three silver medals at the 1995 Asian Diving Championship, and the bronze medals for men’s platform diving and the three-meter springboard diving at the 13th Asian Games in 1998.

Chinese woman track and field coach Chen Meiling was sent to Pakistan three times to work with local coaches to select Pakistani athletes, organize training sessions and competitions. After a few months in her care, the Pakistan team won the bronze medal for the women’s 4 x 100 relay at the Fourth South Asian Games.

Since 2003, China has sent 36 coaches in 13 events to Mexico ― including diving, swimming, gymnastics, badminton and table tennis ― and 12 of them have produced world champions. Within the first two years of their arrival, the athletes they trained won 24 gold medals, 154 silver medals and 109 bronze medals in major world and national sports events, including the Pan-American Games, the Mexican National Games and the Olympics preliminaries. Diving athletes coached by Ma Jin won one gold medal, three silver medals and three bronze medals at the Universiade, and one Mexican diver trained by Ma ranked first among the Top 10 Athletes of Mexico. Ma was later met by the then Mexican president and proclaimed the best coach in Mexico.

Winning the Trust of the World

In recent years, more and more Chinese coaches have been invited to developed countries in Europe and on the American continent, and they have won the recognition and trust of the world with their performances and that of their teams.

At the end of 2007, the American women’s volleyball team won qualification for the Beijing Olympic Games. The coach of the team is the most famous volleyball coach, Lang Ping. Lang was a respected figure in the 1980s in China, when she served on the Chinese women’s volleyball team and won numerous world championships with her team members. In the late 1990s, she worked as the coach of the Chinese women’s volleyball team, and then moved abroad. She stayed in Italy for five years to coach league matches, and her team won the championship cup every year. In February 2005, Lang Ping was invited to the United States to be the head coach of the American women’s volleyball team.

Jiang Ying, a fellow player of Lang Ping’s, moved to Australia in 1990 and took up the post of volleyball coach of the South Australian Sports Institute, and in 2005 she began to serve as the head coach of the Australian women’s volleyball team.

Fang Yan is the third Chinese volleyball coach abroad. He has worked for the Cannes Women’s Volleyball Club in France for over 10 years, and has led his team in winning 11 championships in French league matches, along with 10 French cups and two European cups. In 2007, at the age of 51, Fang was invited to join the French women’s national volleyball team as its head coach. Fang promised to coach the team for two months, then come back to the Cannes Club, but to continue acting as a consultant for the French national team.

Gymnastics is very popular in the United States, and American gymnast Shawn Johnson won three gold medals the first time she participated in the World Gymnastics Championships, causing a great sensation in her home state of Iowa. Upon returning home, she and her coach Qiao Liang (Liang Chow) were received by the Iowa state governor, who made Qiao Liang an honorary citizen of Iowa, presenting him with a “key to the state.”

Qiao Liang was formerly a member of the Chinese gymnastics team. In 1990, he went to Iowa to study English and served as an assistant coach of the local gymnastics school. In 1998, he opened the Qiao Gymnastics School and met six-year-old Shawn Johnson. Under Qiao’s carefully arranged teaching and guidance over the past 10 years, Shawn’s skills improved rapidly and dramatically. In 2007, the first year she participated in thecompetition, Shawn won three gold medals, and Qiao was invited to be the head coach of the American women’s gymnastics team.

Another Chinese gymnast, Lu Li, impressed all referees at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics with a score of 10 on the parallel bars to win the gold medal. She is now coaching in her gymnastics club in North Carolina, and her students often win all-round and group championships in American gymnastics competitions. Recently, her club was awarded the “All-round Champion Club” by the American Gymnastics Association.

Cultural Difference a Challenge

Fifty-eight-year-old Liu Jiayi was the first coach of former world table tennis champion Chen Xinhua. Liu has worked as a table tennis coach in England for 13 years, but still has conflicts with his team members, sometimes due to language, cultural differences and a different understanding of sports. When Liu worked in China, he always complained that the Chinese athletes relied too much on their coaches and lacked independence. Now, serving as the head coach of the English team, he worries about how to communicate with his team members, as they are all very independent and sometimes do not listen to his instructions.

Chinese diver Tong Hui left the Chinese diving team 10 years ago and has coached in Canada and Australia since then. From his experience, he thinks that the Chinese sports administration system and culture is responsible for cultivating so many diving champions in China. In Australia, on the other hand, most parents send their children to diving schools to occupy their free time. “The Australian government invests little in athletic sports events,” said Tong. “Once the government chooses the coach, he is free to use his methods to train and administrate the team, and the Australian diving team is still anteam.”

Li Mao, coach of the Atlanta Olympics badminton men’s single silver medal winner Dong Jiong, went to head the Republic of Korea badminton team in 1999, and in four years he trained several top world players, including Olympic champion Shon Seung Mo and Sudirman Cup winner Lee Hyun-il. In 2005, Li was invited by the Malaysian Badminton Association to coach there, and after his training, Malaysian badminton player Lee Chongwei won several world championships. In 2007 he went back to the Korean team.

“I am a professional coach,” said Li Mao, “and wherever I coach, I will follow my professional ethics. As I don’t speak Korean, I use body language to teach my athletes. I feel proud to be invited abroad to coach other teams. It proves the level of Chinese badminton skills. But personally speaking, I still hope to come back to China, as I am Chinese, and I am always ready to contribute to my country.”

China’s Firsts in Olympic History

1. First Chinese appearance in an

Olympic arena

In May 1924, three self-sponsored Chinese tennis players attended the tennis performance match at the Ⅷ Olympic Games in Paris. Although they were eliminated in the preliminary match, it was the first time Chinese players appeared on an Olympic court.

2. First Chinese delegate at the Olympic Games

At the Ⅸ Olympics held in Amsterdam in May 1928, China was invited to send an observer to attend the opening ceremony. Song Ruhai, then studying in the United States, was sent to Amsterdam as the first Chinese delegate at the Olympic Games.

3. First Chinese delegation to compete in the Games

It was not until July 1932, when the Ⅹ Olympic Games were held in Los Angeles, that China sent its first sports delegation to attend the Olympics, though it composed of only six members, including Liu Changchun, the only athlete to participate in competitions.

4. First delegation to the Olympic Games since the founding

of the PRC

In 1952, the People’s Republic of China sent a delegation of 40 to the ⅩⅤ Olympic Games in Helsinki, Finland. Athlete Wu Chuanyu’s 100-meter Backstroke’s result in the preliminary contest was 1’12’’3.

5. First Olympic medal

In 1960, Yang Chuanguang from Taiwan won the silver medal in the decathlon at the ⅩⅦ Olympics in Rome, becoming the first Chinese to win an Olympic medal.

6. First Chinese female Olympic medal winner

At the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, Ji Zheng from Taiwan won third place in the women’s 80-meter hurdles with a result of 10’’4, becoming the first Chinese woman to win an Olympic medal.

7. China regains its lawful seat at the IOC, and Chinese players return to the Olympics

With the restoration of the Chinese Olympic Committee’s lawful seat in the IOC, China sent 225 athletes to Los Angeles in July 1984 for the ⅩⅩⅢ Olympic Games. China’s Taipei also sent 67 players to the Games. It is the first time for Chinese athletes from the two sides of the Taiwan Strait to compete together in the

Olympics.

8. The first Olympic gold medal

In July 1984, the first gold medal at the Los Angeles Olympics was won by a Chinese athlete named Xu Haifeng in the men’s free pistol event. As the first Olympic gold ever won by a Chinese in Olympic history, it was called “a break through zero” ― an event that brought great joy to the whole Chinese nation.

9. The first female gold medal winner at the Winter Olympics

At the 2002 Winter Olympics held in Salt Lake City, Yang Yang won the championships in the Women’s 500-meter and 1,000-meter speed skating events. She is the first Chinese female athlete to win gold medals at the Winter Olympics.

10. The first group championship

In July 1984, China won the gold medal in women’s volleyball at the Los Angeles Olympics.

11. First time China bids for the Olympics

In 1991, China bid to hold the 2000 Olympic Games, but failed.

12. The first Chinese to break a world record

In 1992 at the 25th Barcelona Olympics, Lin Li won the championship in the Women’s 200-meter Individual Medley, breaking the world record.

13. The first time China hosts the Olympics

In August 2008, the XXIX Olympic Games were held in Beijing.