CHINA: Olympics - low-key involvement by universities

University sports are a big deal in China, followed with great fervour by students and alumni, and many universities boast excellent sporting facilities and stadiums. Yet historically there has been a great distance, even antipathy, between the state administration and university sports departments. As a result, the nation's centralised sports system means universities have largely been left out in the cold when it comes to preparing athletes for the Olympic Games.

Where most countries bring athletes up through the ranks via university sports teams, and call on higher education institutions for their expertise, the People's Republic continues to rely on the Soviet-style State General Sport Administration. Only in recent years have athletes from university teams been permitted to join the national squad, following a lawsuit in 2005 from a diving trainer at Beijing's Tsinghua University to stop the state administration poaching her best athletes.

Tsinghua, where 100-metre hopeful Hu Kai trains, is explicitly advancing an alternative training model based on US college sports. According to Hu, the Tsinghua system has potential but cannot yet provide top-flight support for athletes. "We still need help from the national training bureau with our training before big events," he said.

Most of China's international athletes are products of lifelong intensive training. Women's table tennis champion Zhang Yining began training at the sports school in her hometown of Beijing at the age of five; gold-winning diver Fu Mingxia left her home in Hubei province at the age of nine to attend a training facility in the capital.

This system has come under fire for failing to equip athletes with education and skills to survive life after their career. Those that fail to get results, or simply retire from sport, often find themselves reduced to menial labour to pay the bills. In response, the state administration has permitted athletes into higher education - 2004 Olympic 110-metre hurdles gold medallist Liu Xiang, for example, is now enrolled in a sports psychology course at East China Normal University.

Overseas, national teams are keen to call on university help. The Indonesian Olympic team has taken on Dr Stephen Bird, a sports expert at Charles Sturt University in New South Wales, as Head of Team Management (Strength and Conditioning). The US Olympic team maintains a permanent high-altitude training facility at the University of North Arizona.

The build-up to the Olympics in China, however, has featured university participation in more peripheral roles. Mountaineering teams from several universities, including Peking University and Tsinghua, were invited to send applicants to join the Mount Everest leg of the torch relay along with Tibetan climbers.

The uniforms worn by Olympic volunteers and staff were designed by a consortium between the Beijing Institute of Clothing Technology, Tsinghua's Academy of Arts and Design, and the China Central Academy of Fine Arts. Many of the thousands of volunteers wearing those uniforms will be students too, who have signed up in vast numbers.

Several Beijing universities are providing facilities for the Games. Gymnasiums at Peking University, the University of Science and Technology, Beijing University of Technology, and China Agricultural University, will host events from rhythmic gymnastics to wrestling. Many American athletes are training at Beijing Normal University.

michael.delaney@uw-news.com