Tiny champions pushed to the limits in China's 'medal factories'
With images showing children of kindergarten age crying in distress as their little bodies are pushed to the limits, it's no wonder parents and children are shying away from China's elite athletic schools.
Tiny children fight back tears as they struggle against gravity and pain, learning the skills required to make them champion athletes and gymnasts.
Looking at a number of photos taken inside the schools, it's no wonder these institutions are often referred to gold medal "factories".
A girl no older than six stretches out and raises her legs into the air to reach to a bamboo stick while she grips parallel bars with her small hands.
Her trainer wipes tears from her eyes.
Several young kindergarten girls attempt handstands with the little bodies leaning against the wall.
One of the little champions looks up in pain from the downward position she appears to have been in for some time.
Principal of the Shanghai Yangpu Youth Amateur Athletic School Zhu Zengxiang says scouts are heading into nurseries to find potential students who might be keen on the gruelling activity.
Principal Zhu calls it “happy gymnastics".
In the decades leading up to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing there was a push toward greater athletic prowess in China.
China topped the tally when it hosted the games and came second to the US in London 2012.
Yet parents and children are now backing away from the competitive edge. Fewer students are enrolling in the athletic academies and curriculum within them is adapting to include more scholastic activities, The Sun reports.
Party committee secretary at Shanghai’s No.1 Children’s Sports School Pudong New Area, Huang Qin, told the newspaper the popularity of the elite academies had waned since its height a few decades ago.
"In the 1980s and 1990s, schools like ours were extremely attractive… [But] parents are less willing now to send their child to sports schools.
"The source of students for sports schools has shrunk as society placed more importance on cultural education."
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