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Air rifle coach Wang Ping had plenty of reason to celebrate at the London 2012 Paralympic Games.
On the first day of the games, Wang was wildly thrilled after Zhang Cuiping won the first gold medal of the event in the women’s R2-10-meter air rifle event with 500.9 points, breaking the previous world record in place for 10 years.
Dong Chao then won gold in the men’s R1-10-meter air rifle, with a score of 699.5. It was the second medal for the Chinese shooting team.
Wang has served as a coach of the Chinese Paralympic shooting team for six years, and she always treats the athletes as her own children.
“I know the athletes are looking for the meaning of life. Compared to four years ago, they are now happier and more confident. This is more relieving for me. I think it is more important to help them restore happiness and dignity than win gold medals,” said Wang.
Spirit
The Chinese team consisted of 282 athletes, ranging in age from 15 to 50, and achieved China’s highest standing in the games since the country first participated back in 1984. The team took away 95 gold medals, six more than in the Beijing Paralympic Games four years ago.
The young swimmer Yang Yang exemplified success by winning four gold medals, breaking two world records and one Paralympic record in London.
Yang comes from east China’s Zhejiang Province. Born in Ningbo in 1997, he suffered from cerebral palsy due to a premature birth. His limbs couldn’t spread, with his hands and feet turning inward. He had no strength in his wrists and was unable to stand. After seven operations, motion in his hands and feet remain limited and he has to travel by wheelchair.
“I could do nothing when I was young and I could only move freely in water, so people called me a ‘fish swimming all day long,’”said Yang.
Yang’s father, Jia Jingyu, believes that swimming, in addition to giving his son a tough mind, has made him calm and someone who never indulges in extreme emotions. Jia was his son’s first swimming teacher.
“At that time, a medical expert from Beijing suggested I take my son to aquatic rehabilitation training, so I took him to a swimming pool. To my surprise, he walked several steps in the water. I was so thrilled that I immediately called his mother. She was cooking. But she hurried to the swimming pool. Witnessing the scene, she burst into tears,” said Jia.
Since then, Yang’s parents took him swimming during their spare time. As a fourth grade student three years later, a coach of the Zhejiang Provincial Swimming Team discovered him. Since then, he underwent professional training and was regularly sent to compete across the country.
“If I didn’t choose swimming, today I probably wouldn’t be able to move my arms,” said Yang. “It was the first time for me to attend the Paralympic Games. Everybody was nice to me. I had no pressure. Actually, I imagined winning the gold medal, but I didn’t expect my performance could be so good.”
Yang’s teammate, 20-year-old Paralympic gold medalist Xu Qing, is another fine example of the Paralympic spirit. Xu won the title at in the men’s 100-meter freestyle S6 final, clocking in at 1:05.82.
Xu lost his arms in a car crash when he was 6 years old. A visit to an artificial limb factory changed the boy’s life.
Xu’s mother recalled that the factory boss—a Paralympic champion in table tennis—recommended Xu engage in sport in order to revitalize his disabled limbs.
When the boss asked what sport he liked, Xu responded, “I like to take baths.”
When Xu first got close to a swimming pool, he drew back. “The 2-meter-deep swimming pool was frightening,” he said.
Luckily, he met coach Ma Yunpeng.
“Xu was the only disabled child among my students. At that time, other children could get into the water with two arms carrying the floating board, but he couldn’t,” said Ma.
Xu mastered the breaststroke first.
“Ordinary people use two arms to blade the water and get forward. I could only depend on the strength of my waist. My speed was certainly slower than the others. And I often choked from the water,” said Xu.
Navigating the water was the least of Xu’s worries. “For disabled people, it was very painful to show their incomplete limbs to others. You can imagine when I appeared at the swimming pool, I was afraid others would give me strange looks.”
Fortunately, Xu’s efforts paid off. In 2006, he attended the Fourth Disabled People’s Sports Meeting of Henan Province and won a gold, a silver and a bronze medal. His self-confidence skyrocketed.
Later at the National Disabled Swimming Championship in 2004, he won a gold and a silver medal and was selected to join THE National Disabled Swimming Team. Several months later at the Athens Paralympic Games, then 12-year-old Xu became the youngest swimmer in the Chinese team.
“My coach told me the reason he sent me to the Paralympic Games was to broaden my horizons,” said Xu.
Although he finished ninth in the Athens competition, the experience boosted his courage. Four years later at the Beijing Olympic Games, he won a gold and a bronze and broke a world record.
Xu says his motto comes from Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Old Man and the Sea: “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.”
Support
“We have no secret. The key to our success is hard training,” said swimmer Pan Shiyun.“Now the country and society are increasingly concerned about disabled people. We now have more platforms and opportunities of self-realization. All the disabled people have ideals. We aspire to display our ability and prove our value at such rare opportunity as the Paralympic Games.”
Swimmer Yang Bozun, a three-time gold medalist, has an idea where strength comes from.
“Our coach often tells us that strength comes from the heart,” said Yang.
“We have a strong team of coaches and a sound selection mechanism for swimmers,”said swimming coach Zhang Honghu.
“With the advancement of national competitiveness, the country has directed more resources to sports for the disabled in terms of both technology and equipment and the cultivation of coaches and athletes,” said Zhang.
As a country with 85 million disabled people—roughly the population of Germany—China has always attached great importance to the Paralympics.
The Paralympic spirit means disabled athletes should challenge themselves, pursue the value of life and foster a sense of dignity, confidence and self-reliance, according to a commentary in the Guangming Daily.
The main reason for China’s continuous great achievements at the Paralympic Games is the support of the government and the people, said Philip Craven, President of the International Paralympic Committee. China attaches great importance to sports for disabled athletes by investing heavily in necessary facilities and human resources, said Craven, adding that the country’s success could be a model for other nations and regions around the world in what it means to care for the disabled.
Progress
“I won China’s first Paralympic gold medal one month before Xu Haifeng won China’s first Olympic gold in Los Angeles in 1984,”said Ping Yali, a blind athlete who was born in Beijing in 1961.
China participated in the Paralympics for the first time in 1984, 24 years after the first Paralympic Games were held in Rome. Around 1,800 athletes from 45 countries and regions vied for 900 medals.
The Chinese delegation consisted of a mere 24 athletes who participated in track and field events, swimming competitions and table tennis. The team finished 23rd on the medal tally with two gold, 13 silver and nine bronze medals.
“When I first participated in the Paralympics, I knew nothing about the rules and learned how to behave from an interpreter right before the competition,” Ping recalled.
A breakthrough was made in the 2004 Athens Paralympics when China led the medal tally with 141 medals, 63 of which were gold. It was the first time that Team China won more than 100 medals in a single Paralympics.
Reminiscing of the first time she participated in the Paralympics, Ping’s voice was riddled with excitement. “Years ago, China Disabled Persons’ Federation (CDPF) sought for blind people to take part in the track and field competitions in the Paralympics, I signed up without any hesitation and was recommended by the federation to train with the national team.
When she left for the Paralympics the first time, leaders of CDPF encouraged her by saying, “If you perform well in the Paralympics, the willingness among Chinese disabled people to do sports would greatly increase.
The Chinese Paralympics delegation has leapt from 23rd place in 1984 to the top of the rankings because of the Chinese Government’s investments in sports development for the disabled.
The China Disability Sports Training Center built right before the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games consists of nearly 20 sporting venues and is the world’s largest training center for disabled people.
The 282 athletes who participated in the London Paralympics come from 29 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities. Statistics from CDPF indicate that currently there are more than 2.7 million disabled athletes in China and 6 million disabled people who regularly partake in sports. Disabled athletes train in hundreds of facilities across China in preparation for a variety of competitions.
Chinese Paralympic athletes have also hit tough times. Although Ping was awarded an apartment of 50 square meters for winning China’s first-ever Paralympic gold medal, she struggled for more than 10 years trying to secure the property rights. After the Paralympics, Ping was “laid off.”
“I was at a loss at that time. In order to make a living, I learned massage. Sports had improved my ability to endure hardships. I would always invent new ways of massage to attract more customers. Now I have a chain of massage parlors which employ disabled people.”
Most disabled Chinese aren’t nearly as respected as their Paralympic counterparts. They live in the bottom rungs of society, es- tranged and despised by ordinary folk. Many are forced into begging on the roadside or on the subway, living on the sympathy of others.
At the beginning of 2010, the Guidelines on Accelerating the Construction of the Social Security and Social Services System for People With a Disability was released. It stated—among other things—that by 2020 the disabled should enjoy basic public and rehabilitation services and that the level of social security for disabled people will greatly improve.
Jia Yong, deputy head of the Chinese Paralympic delegation and Vice President of CDPF said, “Our federation is taking measures to shorten the distance between the sports service system for disabled people and that for healthy people and at the same time to make disabled people benefit from the sports service system for healthy people.”
In order to provide more guidance for the disabled, BDPF has organized several sessions to train 334 sports coaches for the disabled. In five years, it will train 30,000 sports coaches to guide and organize disabled people to do sports.
CDPF also plans to build 1,200 exemplary sports centers for the disabled in five years to promote sports and physical activity.
On the first day of the games, Wang was wildly thrilled after Zhang Cuiping won the first gold medal of the event in the women’s R2-10-meter air rifle event with 500.9 points, breaking the previous world record in place for 10 years.
Dong Chao then won gold in the men’s R1-10-meter air rifle, with a score of 699.5. It was the second medal for the Chinese shooting team.
Wang has served as a coach of the Chinese Paralympic shooting team for six years, and she always treats the athletes as her own children.
“I know the athletes are looking for the meaning of life. Compared to four years ago, they are now happier and more confident. This is more relieving for me. I think it is more important to help them restore happiness and dignity than win gold medals,” said Wang.
Spirit
The Chinese team consisted of 282 athletes, ranging in age from 15 to 50, and achieved China’s highest standing in the games since the country first participated back in 1984. The team took away 95 gold medals, six more than in the Beijing Paralympic Games four years ago.
The young swimmer Yang Yang exemplified success by winning four gold medals, breaking two world records and one Paralympic record in London.
Yang comes from east China’s Zhejiang Province. Born in Ningbo in 1997, he suffered from cerebral palsy due to a premature birth. His limbs couldn’t spread, with his hands and feet turning inward. He had no strength in his wrists and was unable to stand. After seven operations, motion in his hands and feet remain limited and he has to travel by wheelchair.
“I could do nothing when I was young and I could only move freely in water, so people called me a ‘fish swimming all day long,’”said Yang.
Yang’s father, Jia Jingyu, believes that swimming, in addition to giving his son a tough mind, has made him calm and someone who never indulges in extreme emotions. Jia was his son’s first swimming teacher.
“At that time, a medical expert from Beijing suggested I take my son to aquatic rehabilitation training, so I took him to a swimming pool. To my surprise, he walked several steps in the water. I was so thrilled that I immediately called his mother. She was cooking. But she hurried to the swimming pool. Witnessing the scene, she burst into tears,” said Jia.
Since then, Yang’s parents took him swimming during their spare time. As a fourth grade student three years later, a coach of the Zhejiang Provincial Swimming Team discovered him. Since then, he underwent professional training and was regularly sent to compete across the country.
“If I didn’t choose swimming, today I probably wouldn’t be able to move my arms,” said Yang. “It was the first time for me to attend the Paralympic Games. Everybody was nice to me. I had no pressure. Actually, I imagined winning the gold medal, but I didn’t expect my performance could be so good.”
Yang’s teammate, 20-year-old Paralympic gold medalist Xu Qing, is another fine example of the Paralympic spirit. Xu won the title at in the men’s 100-meter freestyle S6 final, clocking in at 1:05.82.
Xu lost his arms in a car crash when he was 6 years old. A visit to an artificial limb factory changed the boy’s life.
Xu’s mother recalled that the factory boss—a Paralympic champion in table tennis—recommended Xu engage in sport in order to revitalize his disabled limbs.
When the boss asked what sport he liked, Xu responded, “I like to take baths.”
When Xu first got close to a swimming pool, he drew back. “The 2-meter-deep swimming pool was frightening,” he said.
Luckily, he met coach Ma Yunpeng.
“Xu was the only disabled child among my students. At that time, other children could get into the water with two arms carrying the floating board, but he couldn’t,” said Ma.
Xu mastered the breaststroke first.
“Ordinary people use two arms to blade the water and get forward. I could only depend on the strength of my waist. My speed was certainly slower than the others. And I often choked from the water,” said Xu.
Navigating the water was the least of Xu’s worries. “For disabled people, it was very painful to show their incomplete limbs to others. You can imagine when I appeared at the swimming pool, I was afraid others would give me strange looks.”
Fortunately, Xu’s efforts paid off. In 2006, he attended the Fourth Disabled People’s Sports Meeting of Henan Province and won a gold, a silver and a bronze medal. His self-confidence skyrocketed.
Later at the National Disabled Swimming Championship in 2004, he won a gold and a silver medal and was selected to join THE National Disabled Swimming Team. Several months later at the Athens Paralympic Games, then 12-year-old Xu became the youngest swimmer in the Chinese team.
“My coach told me the reason he sent me to the Paralympic Games was to broaden my horizons,” said Xu.
Although he finished ninth in the Athens competition, the experience boosted his courage. Four years later at the Beijing Olympic Games, he won a gold and a bronze and broke a world record.
Xu says his motto comes from Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Old Man and the Sea: “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.”
Support
“We have no secret. The key to our success is hard training,” said swimmer Pan Shiyun.“Now the country and society are increasingly concerned about disabled people. We now have more platforms and opportunities of self-realization. All the disabled people have ideals. We aspire to display our ability and prove our value at such rare opportunity as the Paralympic Games.”
Swimmer Yang Bozun, a three-time gold medalist, has an idea where strength comes from.
“Our coach often tells us that strength comes from the heart,” said Yang.
“We have a strong team of coaches and a sound selection mechanism for swimmers,”said swimming coach Zhang Honghu.
“With the advancement of national competitiveness, the country has directed more resources to sports for the disabled in terms of both technology and equipment and the cultivation of coaches and athletes,” said Zhang.
As a country with 85 million disabled people—roughly the population of Germany—China has always attached great importance to the Paralympics.
The Paralympic spirit means disabled athletes should challenge themselves, pursue the value of life and foster a sense of dignity, confidence and self-reliance, according to a commentary in the Guangming Daily.
The main reason for China’s continuous great achievements at the Paralympic Games is the support of the government and the people, said Philip Craven, President of the International Paralympic Committee. China attaches great importance to sports for disabled athletes by investing heavily in necessary facilities and human resources, said Craven, adding that the country’s success could be a model for other nations and regions around the world in what it means to care for the disabled.
Progress
“I won China’s first Paralympic gold medal one month before Xu Haifeng won China’s first Olympic gold in Los Angeles in 1984,”said Ping Yali, a blind athlete who was born in Beijing in 1961.
China participated in the Paralympics for the first time in 1984, 24 years after the first Paralympic Games were held in Rome. Around 1,800 athletes from 45 countries and regions vied for 900 medals.
The Chinese delegation consisted of a mere 24 athletes who participated in track and field events, swimming competitions and table tennis. The team finished 23rd on the medal tally with two gold, 13 silver and nine bronze medals.
“When I first participated in the Paralympics, I knew nothing about the rules and learned how to behave from an interpreter right before the competition,” Ping recalled.
A breakthrough was made in the 2004 Athens Paralympics when China led the medal tally with 141 medals, 63 of which were gold. It was the first time that Team China won more than 100 medals in a single Paralympics.
Reminiscing of the first time she participated in the Paralympics, Ping’s voice was riddled with excitement. “Years ago, China Disabled Persons’ Federation (CDPF) sought for blind people to take part in the track and field competitions in the Paralympics, I signed up without any hesitation and was recommended by the federation to train with the national team.
When she left for the Paralympics the first time, leaders of CDPF encouraged her by saying, “If you perform well in the Paralympics, the willingness among Chinese disabled people to do sports would greatly increase.
The Chinese Paralympics delegation has leapt from 23rd place in 1984 to the top of the rankings because of the Chinese Government’s investments in sports development for the disabled.
The China Disability Sports Training Center built right before the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games consists of nearly 20 sporting venues and is the world’s largest training center for disabled people.
The 282 athletes who participated in the London Paralympics come from 29 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities. Statistics from CDPF indicate that currently there are more than 2.7 million disabled athletes in China and 6 million disabled people who regularly partake in sports. Disabled athletes train in hundreds of facilities across China in preparation for a variety of competitions.
Chinese Paralympic athletes have also hit tough times. Although Ping was awarded an apartment of 50 square meters for winning China’s first-ever Paralympic gold medal, she struggled for more than 10 years trying to secure the property rights. After the Paralympics, Ping was “laid off.”
“I was at a loss at that time. In order to make a living, I learned massage. Sports had improved my ability to endure hardships. I would always invent new ways of massage to attract more customers. Now I have a chain of massage parlors which employ disabled people.”
Most disabled Chinese aren’t nearly as respected as their Paralympic counterparts. They live in the bottom rungs of society, es- tranged and despised by ordinary folk. Many are forced into begging on the roadside or on the subway, living on the sympathy of others.
At the beginning of 2010, the Guidelines on Accelerating the Construction of the Social Security and Social Services System for People With a Disability was released. It stated—among other things—that by 2020 the disabled should enjoy basic public and rehabilitation services and that the level of social security for disabled people will greatly improve.
Jia Yong, deputy head of the Chinese Paralympic delegation and Vice President of CDPF said, “Our federation is taking measures to shorten the distance between the sports service system for disabled people and that for healthy people and at the same time to make disabled people benefit from the sports service system for healthy people.”
In order to provide more guidance for the disabled, BDPF has organized several sessions to train 334 sports coaches for the disabled. In five years, it will train 30,000 sports coaches to guide and organize disabled people to do sports.
CDPF also plans to build 1,200 exemplary sports centers for the disabled in five years to promote sports and physical activity.