Western Whining about the Alleged Harshness of China’s Olympics Training — Misses the Point

© 2012 Peter Free

 

10 August 2012

 

 

Citation — to an example of whining about China’s Olympics success

 

Ian Ransom and Ryan McNeil, The Shocking Lengths China Will Go To Win At The Olympics, Reuters via Business Insider (09 August 2012)

 

 

Samples of the criticism of China’s training system

 

From the Reuters report:

 

Chinese bloggers expressed their disgust last week after a Shanghai newspaper reported that the parents of Olympic diver Wu Minxia had concealed her mother's long battle with breast cancer for fear of disturbing her training.

 

While the fall of Communism in Europe in the 1980s and 1990s put paid to the command-and-control systems that turned the Soviet Union and East Germany into sporting superpowers, China's "juguo tizhi" - literally 'whole nation system' - remains as entrenched as ever.

 

Like Wu, the greater majority of China's 396 Olympians have started their sports at tender ages, sacrificed their childhoods for the state and drawn their emotional support from team mates, coaches and officials, in lieu of family members and friends.

 

But the Olympic medals have obscured the more unsavory aspects of the sports regime, which has been blamed for leaving less successful athletes uneducated and ill-equipped to thrive outside the competition venues.

 

"You wonder why the Chinese women are so successful? Most of the men are coaches. The women are literally beaten into submission," Johannah Doecke, diving coach at the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis in the United States, told Reuters.

 

"If you said no to anything, you would be chastised, slapped around. It's a brutal system."

 

© 2012 Ian Ransom and Ryan McNeil, The Shocking Lengths China Will Go To Win At The Olympics, Reuters via Business Insider (09 August 2012)

 

 

Is that the best criticism that “we” can deliver?

 

Are critics trying to imply that American athletes are not sometimes ill-equipped to survive once the glory (or the attempt) is over?

 

Are we saying that our own athletes are not sometimes protected from the rigors of family life in order to benefit their concentration?

 

Do we resent the fact that China’s non-Western emphasis on the common good is occasionally (extraordinarily) successful?

 

Are we implying that China’s athletes are not frequently happy to be yanked out of abject poverty onto the world stage?

 

 

Stupidest of all — criticizing physical abuse on athletic grounds assumes that such methods work

 

I have not seen persuasive evidence that physical abuse works in achieving exceptional human performances over the long term.

 

One can certainly legitimately criticize abusers for their actions on humanitarian grounds.  But I suspect that Western whining about Chinese training techniques is predominantly envious of whatever it is that China’s regime is doing that actually works to produce excellence.

 

We humans are uncomfortable, when our inertia-based complacence is upset.

 

 

What is probably really going on — sour grapes and missed opportunities to learn

 

My guess is that China’s regimented and success-focused system, combined with that nation’s large gene pool, accounts for more of its Olympic success, than its alleged penchant for physical abuse.

 

When you see the precision of China’s top divers, you do have to wonder what competing nations are missing in their training.

 

The gap between China’s gold medal divers and everybody else is stark.  It is obvious that drugs have nothing to do with it.  Discipline and repetitiveness, certainly.  Focus, without a doubt.  Physical abuse is probably not predominantly contributive.

 

Were I still an athletic coach, instead of accusing the Chinese of inhumane training methods, I would be examining their techniques and competitive mindsets for tips that I could use to improve our efforts.

 

 

The moral? — Instead of sour grapes carping, China’s critics should look to the weaknesses in our own performances

 

Focus, analysis, and repetitive practice are almost certainly the main differences between China and most of its competitors in athletics and economics.

 

In contrast, we Americans cannot even constructively concentrate on escaping the economic doldrums and democracy-depleted times that we are in.  Witness the brainlessness of the current presidential election, with both candidates exclusively focused on telling lies and ignoring real issues.

 

Instead of carping about China’s obvious successes, we should be looking to fix our own affairs.