Gold medals aren't everything: COC

A top Chinese Olympic official has admitted that a sports development program implemented to yield ultimate glory in Beijing next year had been a complete flop.

In what could be considered part ruse to ease pressure on local athletes, China's Sports Bureau vice-director Cui Dalin informed a packed press conference yesterday that "Project 119", a development regime to harvest more medals from swimming, canooing and athletics, had all but failed.

The project was named after the possible number of gold medals to be won in those fields, a figure that may well be satirised in future if Cui's fears are realised.

"We have put a lot of effort in since announcing the project by employing foreign coaches and sending the players to as many international events as we can," he said of the initiative launched soon after the Athens Olympics.

"But to be frank, we have made very few improvements."

China finished second behind the United States in the 2004 medal tally before eclipsing the US (in mostly trraditional Chinese sports) to win 43 gold medals at (Olympic) world title events last year, seven more than their arch rivals from across the Pacific.

American athletes won 25 events in Athens in athletics, swimming and aquatic sports - more than half the team's total haul.

China snared just four in those sports: in men's 110m hurdles, the women's 10,000m track and 100m breaststroke, and the men's C2 canoeing.

This disparity prompted calls to sharpen China's performance in Olympic stadium and aquatic and rowing center competitions.

But little if any headway has been made since the elusive number '119' captured the imagination of Chinese sports fans three years ago.

Team USA bagged seven golds at the World Athletics Championships in Finland in 2005, where China managed a paltry silver thanks to hurdler Liu Xiang, and 17 at the Swimming World titles in March at a fruitless Australian meet for Chinese swimmers.

Cui said these performances showed that winning even a single gold in "119" events at Beijing would be a tall order.

"I don't see anybody is able to win the gold in this field, apart from Liu Xiang," he said. "I have to face the reality that we have lagged behind for decades, the changes won't happen overnight."

China achieved 32 gold medals to beat Russia and finish a close bridesmaid to the US (40) in 2004. But Cui believes the failure to make big leaps in the focus sports has undermined chances of surpassing the world's No 1 sporting nation.

"The poor performance in the three events makes us unable to compete against the US and Russia on the medal table," he lamented.

"The gap is widening- American and Russia are stronger in those sports. I feel it is not realistic for us to catch up to the US and lead the medal rankings."

Making matters worse for China is the reality the team can hardly improve on its haul in traditional Chinese sports after winning six of eight golds in diving, three from four in table tennis, badminton and women's weightlifting, and two from two in women's taekwondo in Athens.

"I don't think we can win more medals than we did in Athens in the sports like table tennis and diving," Cui said.

"We have little space for improvement."

China should "realistically" aim to compete with the likes of Japan, Germany, Australia and France, added the cautious official.

"America and Russia are in a leading group of their own - we are trying to be the leaders of the second group," explained Cui, also the Chinese Olympic Committee (COC) vice-chairman.

The deflated Olympic boss even holds fears that the vaunted home-turf advantage might backfire in sports requiring steady nerves.

"The pressure of being hosts may have a bad effect on the athletes, especially in our strong sports such as diving and shooting," he claimed.

"The situation is tough for us and I am sure it will be a very hard Olympics given the high expectation from the whole nation and also the challenge from the powerful rivals, so we are not going to set impossible goals for our athletes."

Cui would not be drawn on how many gold medals China could expect to win in Beijing.

He said the outcome was highly unpredictable and, perhaps in a further ploy to take some heat off China's best, not the only measure of success.

"I think the No 1 goal is to have a clean Olympics without drugs rather than chasing down the number of gold medals," he suggested.

"Gold medals aren't everything."

Some 448 Chinese athletes have already booked a berth in Beijing and it is thought another 100-120 will join them by next August.

More than 1,500 athletes from 55 Chinese national teams and 28 sports are currently stretching themselves behind closed doors with little more than year to go until the event of their lifetime.

(China Daily 08/02/2007 page22)