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Young girl becomes slaveto the Olympic spirit

By Lindsey Hilsum
THE OBSERVER, XIANNING, CHINA
Tuesday, Aug 07, 2007, Page 9

Through the wind, rain and sweltering heat, through the dingy towns of central China, a little girl in shorts and T-shirt is running.

She's been on the road since July 3, when she set off from her home in Hainan, heading for Beijing, 3,558km away. Her aim is to reach the Great Wall.

Pinned to her chest and back, like a competitor's bib, is a yellow cloth with red characters reading: "Olympic Spirit, Strong Body, Extreme Challenge, Honor for the Nation."

Eight-year-old Zhang Huimin (張惠敏) is the most extreme example of the fervor for sporting success sweeping China a year before the Beijing Olympics, which will start on the auspicious date of 08/08/08. At 20kg -- the weight of a packed suitcase -- and standing only 1.25m tall, she looks tiny and fragile.

For some she represents the Olympic spirit of determination to achieve against all odds; but for others, a kind of mania which may end in disaster.

Huimin had been preparing for more than a year. She got up every day at 2:30am and ran through the dark, deserted streets of her home town, Lingao, completing a half-marathon before dawn.

Then she went to school, had a nap after lunch, did her homework in the scruffy yard where her father raises fish for sale, and trained with makeshift weights before going to bed at 9pm.

While she ran, her father, Zhang Jianmin (張建民), cycled beside her. A frustrated athlete himself, he has poured all his ambition into his exceptional but vulnerable daughter.

"Her training may be too harsh for others, but she's used to it," he said. "No matter what science says, as long as it suits her, it's a good scheme. All theory must be based on practice."

Certainly she seems happy. She leaps and laughs as she runs, apparently tireless. As dawn breaks, after three hours with scarcely a break, she doesn't even have to catch her breath.

"My favorite things are running and boxing. Daddy says running is good for my health. If I know boxing, I can beat up those trying to bully me," she said, while hanging one of her marathon medals around the neck of her teddy bear.

Huimin's ambition is to win a gold medal in the 2016 Olympics, the first for which she would be old enough to qualify.

But Hong Kong-based sports doctor Patrick Yung (容樹恆), who is affiliated to the International Federation of Sports Medicine and the Hong Kong Sports Institute, worries that she will burn out -- or worse -- long before that.

"When you start to train as a kid, the problem will be overuse injuries that can affect the musculo-skeletal system, like bone, soft tissue, ligaments and muscles," he said.

As she is still growing, he worries that her growth plates will be affected and she could even end up with one leg longer than the other.

"When she gets to 10 or 11, she should start to menstruate, but long-term intensive training will affect her menarche, so that will be an immediate problem in two or three years' time," Yung said.

Her father says he is doing all he can to keep her healthy.

"If injuries occur, we'll have to accept it. Walking on the street could get you into an accident. It's all fate," he said.

This combination of fatalism, determination and unconventional science is also found in the Chinese Olympic team itself.

Zhou Chunxiu (周春秀), who won the this year's women's London Marathon, trains in Dalian, alongside other Olympic hopefuls. The 26-year-old's schedule is punishing. In the three months leading up to a major race she runs more than 200km a week.

Her coach, Liang Songli (梁松利), says sometimes she runs more than 300km a week, twice the distance of other elite athletes.

"In winter the maximum was 340km a week," he said.

"Before the London Marathon, I ran one marathon a day during the training. I was well prepared and trained hard. That's why I did well in London. I trained intensively for three months, averaging 230-250km a week," Zhou said.

"It's amazing, Miss Zhou trains for almost 300km per week. I'm really very, very worried. I think most elite athletes would suffer musculo-skeletal injuries or other problems even after just a few months of this kind of training," Yung said.

Zhou knows the fate of other Chinese female athletes who have ended up crippled and penniless in middle age. Under the Chinese system, she is employed by the state but is allowed commercial sponsorship. She has bought a house and is saving money, to ensure she will manage when her career is over.

"I've heard of the injury cases. I'd be lying if I say I'm not worried at all," she said.

"But being in this position, I'm not allowed to think too much about the future. It's more important to do well in today's competition," she said.

Liang believes such intensive training is the only way Zhou can beat physically bigger runners such as Paula Radcliffe.

"Europeans have more bone density and better muscle quality," he said. "They're born with better physical condition and their diet structure is better than ours. We must be willing to take on more hardship and more intensive training, enduring more pain than average people can ever imagine. Then we can beat all our rivals."

Conventional sports medicine suggests that being small is not necessarily a disadvantage for long-distance runners.

Little Huimin sees Zhou as a role model and heroine. While in other countries, social services department might question whether such a lifestyle is suitable for a child, the local government in Hainan has encouraged her. Along the route to Beijing, she signs flags with Olympic mottos, like a minor celebrity.

"I run for the future. I want to be a champion. I want to win honor for the country," Huimin said.
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