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You and Yours聽- Transcript 成人论坛 Radio 4 |
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TX: 20.01.05 - China Paralympics PRESENTER: JOHN WAITE AND PETER WHITE |
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Downloaded from www.bbc.co.uk/radio4 THE ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT. BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF MISHEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE 成人论坛 CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS COMPLETE ACCURACY. WAITE Now it may seem like only yesterday that we were celebrating the successes of the British Olympics and Paralympics teams in Athens but of course no sooner has one games ended then preparations for the next ones begin. And while our Paralympic team have particular cause for pride in Greece last summer, coming second as they did in the overall medal table, many other countries now are beginning to take the Paralympics far more seriously and providing tougher competition and none more so than the next hosts - China - in 2008. Their performance in Athens was astonishing, coming from fourth place in Sydney they dominated last year's Paralympics, winning almost twice as many golds as any other team. Strange, some might say, perhaps, as China's domestic record on disability rights is a distinctly poor one. Well Peter White has been to Beijing to find out about its Paralympics preparations but his report starts back in the swimming pool of the Greek ones in Athens last September. ACTUALITY The third gold of the week for Junguan He of the People's Republic of China. WHITE Junguan He powering his way to yet another Chinese gold medal in the 200 metres individual medley. Other nations expected the Chinese squad to be strong with the Beijing games coming up in four years time but the extent of their dominance, almost twice as many gold medals as their nearest rivals Great Britain, has taken people by surprise. High jumper, Bin Hou, who himself has won his third Paralympic title here, thinks the reason for their success is simple. BIN HOU THROUGH TRANSLATOR I think that in the last 10 years or so the Chinese government has taken a lot more notice of the Paralympics. I took part in the Atlantic Games in 1996 but there weren't many Chinese competitors and we didn't have many training facilities. But now the government is taking us much more seriously. WHITE This is no coincidence of course - a city's ability to stage the Paralympics is now regarded as an important factor in the granting of the games - Athens almost lost them because of doubts about it. So the Chinese have been pouring financial and human resources into improving their squad in a way few other countries could match. Ken Kelly was in charge of the British Paralympic athletics team in Athens, he realised the Chinese were prepared in a way which we would find it difficult and perhaps not all that desirable to match. KELLY China's probably one of the few countries in the world now that probably would be able to have a system that was in any way in comparison to the old Eastern European bloc systems of developing sports men and women. Their national championships last year for example had 1500 athletes in it, which are more athletes in their national championships than actually compete here in the Paralympic Games. So the scale on which they're able to muster resources is something that we've not come across before. WHITE The frightening thing for other countries is that despite their phenomenal success last September the Chinese delegation made no secret of the fact that their team was picked not with Athens but with Beijing in mind, as their deputy team manager Go Yun Yu [phon.] explained. GO YUN YU THROUGH TRANSLATOR We're already preparing for Beijing, you can see that from the team we brought to Athens. We've brought our biggest squad ever. We're participating in more sports and we've got a young team. Eighty percent of those here are taking part in their first Paralympics. WHITE And nothing is being left to chance. The secret of their success is that disabled athletes have been included in the overall structure of sport in China and are being given very much the same facilities and coaching resources given to mainstream athletes. Robin Jones is a lecturer in Sports and Exercise Science at Loughborough University and he's taken a great interest in the way in which Chinese sport has tapped into its huge numbers to make it competitive at international level. JONES They do make strenuous efforts to uncover the talent, starting right through at the town county level, working up to the provincial levels and then on to the national levels too. And they do have schemes to seek out talent there, through working in schools, working in special schools, inviting taster classes in for families to come in which will allow these young people to try the sport out and to see if their talent is worth developing. WHITE And as Robin Jones points out sport is only a small part of a much wider strategy to bring China in from the cold to join many of the clubs which mark you down as a big international player. JONES The decisions they've made have been all tied up with their overall international programme, that included joining the World Trade Organisation, trying to get their currency accepted as a hard currency, setting up much more open trade associations, sport hasn't been independent it's been part of an overall push to become part of the world community. WHITE It's being suggested that this can only be good news for ordinary disabled people in China. It's acknowledged that China doesn't have a good disability rights record in the past and that achieving national success, contributing to Chinese prestige around the world, will give disabled people a higher profile and therefore better conditions. But disabled activist Chen Quon Chung [phon.] says that few people realise the extent of poverty which exists amongst Chinese disabled people, particularly in rural areas and he doesn't see the training of a few elite athletes as likely to lead to significant improvements. CHUNG I don't think actually the glory of the success is good thing because here they only using disabled people to their own political purposes and they're using them once, maybe they abuse them, maybe they train them very heavily only for once, like a disposable tool and doesn't actually make anything different. So it's actually not that good thing. Even our disabled federation doesn't even realise how difficult - how we're living in. All their jobs was to tell the world what kind of progress they've made, what glorious job they've done, is that actually giving the real reality? WHITE That warning from a campaigner who still lives in a poor farming community in the countryside to the south of Beijing. Nevertheless this is one national anthem which can only get more familiar. CHINESE NATIONAL ATHEM It seems that whatever happens Paralympic sport is never going to be quite the same again and that come 2008 this is a tune the rest of the world might be involuntarily humming. WAITE Peter White reporting there from Beijing. Back to the You and Yours homepage The 成人论坛 is not responsible for external websites |
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