The times they are a-changin', sang Bob Dylan in the 1960s. But even he didn't have any idea about how much the world would change in the next 40 years. The world's economies, communications, cultures and international relations have all changed beyond recognition, as has the world of sports.

Gone are the days when "friendship first, competition second" was chanted by athletes at every sports meet in China and banners proclaiming that spirit adorned every single sporting venue.

Sport was then supposed to build a healthy body and mind, and was enjoyed for its own sake. "The most important thing" then, as founder of the modern Olympics Pierre de Coubertin said, was "not winning but taking part."

Sporting glory and furtherance of their sport were the twin motivators for sportsmen and women. Outstanding performers were rewarded with no more than a trophy and a certificate of recognition.

Things are no longer what they used to be. At about the same time as China's economy shifted to embrace market forces, "friendship first" gave way to "glory first." As profit became the motivating factor for the economy, the gold medal, and the riches that come with it, usurped friendship on the sports field.

The stakes today are very high, and so are the rewards. Athletes, coaches and sports officials are all, to some degree, on the trail of profits. Given such a situation, who in the world would bother about friendship, or for that matter sportsmanship.

Winning or losing a game can make or break people today. Apart from personal glory, winners at the national or international games now take home a stack of cold, hard cash. Rewards in kind, such as cars or luxurious flats, are also becoming increasingly popular. Then there are the sponsors. Multinational companies offer astronomical sums to athletes to endorse their products.

Winning a tournament can put coaches and sports officials on pedestals from where they can take off for greener pastures.

In China, stardom was traditionally confined to movie actors and singers. That is no longer the case. Today, many high-flying sports players, like Yao Ming or Liu Xiang, have been elevated to celebrity status.

Losers, however, are denied both the fame and the fortune. Many are lost in oblivion.

Such being the state of affairs, the scandals that rocked the 10th National Games, held in Nanjing recently, were not altogether unexpected. Foul play, match-fixing, doping and bad umpiring were allegations that followed the games.

So how do we cleanse sports of corruption? Scrap the national games, suggested some. The issue is certainly a serious matter, but doing away with the Games altogether is definitely not the answer.

The National Games is still the largest single sports meet that brings people together and builds bonds of respect among different regions of a country as vast as China. It is still one of the best platforms for people to demonstrate their spirit of sporting competition. It is an inspiration for budding talents, not only on the sports field, but also in other walks of life.

Sport is like the economy. Both have their dark sides. But the evils are not inherent to their activities. If anything, the management should be blamed. The market economy has not brought succour to all, it has cheated some people of their rights, it is discriminatory at times and has introduced corruption. Have we done away with it?

No. Instead we are trying to improve it and rid the system of these evils.

To run any system, be it sport or the economy, we need a set of foolproof rules and a level playing field.

Our experience shows that faulty rules will produce only faulty results. A typical example of this is the "points sharing" system of the National Games, where medals and points earned by the People's Liberation Army team are shared by the PLA and the native provinces of the medallists. If the PLA wins, everybody wins. Many of the match-fixing scandals were the direct result of this inherent weakness in the rules.

The disease plaguing the world of sports is the same as that in other areas of life in transitional China: lack of proper rules.

The National Games were intended to be a dress rehearsal for the Beijing Olympics. Given the problems that cropped up at the Games, China needs to reconsider how it is going to present itself before the world in 2008.

Fortunately, China still has time to clean up its sporting house before the 2008 Olympics and rethink its priority: winning medals or winning hearts.

Email: zouhr@chinadaily.com.hk

(China Daily 11/04/2005 page4)