Chinese Female athletes

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

CCTV 9/ Rediscovering China had a program on Wednesday about the Olympic 2008 Series and specifically about Chinese Female athletes that had competed in diverse championships, from swimming, spring board divers, table tennis, gymnastics etc.

I was very impressed with the story of Cheng Fei, a young girl who invented an athletic move. In order for the move to be recognized and name after an athlete, the move needs to be complete successfully by the creator in 2 consecutive tries in an Olympic game. In 2004 Cheng got her move recognized and the “Cheng Fei jump” was accepted. She is part of a team of Chinese females that are very competitive, and she is expected to represent china in the Olympics 2008.

These young women had dedicated their lives to train and prepare to compete with athletes from around the world.

I found the several links:

http://www.gymbox.net/cheng_fei.htm
and
to see one of several youtube videos (click here) or copy paste the following:

I wonder if LAUSD schools could create more rigorous athletic programs that could allow more young people to participate of such events. I am wrong or only families with economic status can afford to have their kids become prominent in competitive sports?
I have seen PE classes and really… the students do not want to do much because they are not used to since little

[Anonymous]

CONSIDERING how women have been percieved in most of the Asian culture ,it is strange that they have people like Michele Quan in a skating rink from some very tender age. I believe that lots of time and money was put into this training to get her to the point where she got into the Olympics.Is this a norm,or was this girl blazing a trail for other Asian girls?

[Anonymous]

I think it's a combination of personal determination and genetics. I may have all the determination in the world to become a professional football player, but being 5'11 and 140, I would never make it onto the a high school varsity team. On the other hand, even if you have a natural ability, you still need to have the personal drive to use those genetic traits. Obviously it's rare to see any athlete, boy or girl, who have both.

[Anonymous]

Finance is a huge part of being a contender in a sport on a national level. I think lots of parents work overtime to put their kids into all kinds of extracurricular program--even with talent and determination, there has to be financial backing to ensue success. All the factors have to be in line for anything to work.

[Anonymous]

Sarah,

that's true with sports like skating, skiing, etc. especially if you're in LA like Michelle Kwan. There would be no way for her to practice or train for the olympic level if her family did not have the financial resources to allow her to participate. However, most rack and field sports require little. Look at many of the winners of the marathon who come from poor areas of Kenya. For them, it's genetics and pure determination.

[Anonymous]

I would think part of the issue is cultural as well. There are very many wealthy Asians in both the US and other parts of the world, who have the financial means to provide their children with the kind of training a Michelle Kwan gets, but still the number of Asian athletes remains relatively small. My guess is that for most Asians sports is just not as central to their existance as is the case for many other young people. I bet most Asian families with the means to support promising young athletes probably would never consider doing so over supporting other goals such as academics. Certainly physical issues matter as well. Yet given the vast numbers of Asians to choose from its hard to believe that if the desire was really there, more great athletes could not be found.

[Anonymous]

I agree that is also cultural. If my asian parents had a choice of me growing up to be 1) something that requires academic skill or 2) physical ability, I know they would choose the first. Would I rather my own child be Michelle Kwan or a doctor/lawyer - I'm not sure. An athlete is one in a million. Being a doctor or lawyer..... well.. we all know lots of mediocre ones who can are still successful. A mediocre athlete gets you nothing.

[Anonymous]

I know that many are focusing on how small the number of Asian athletes is. In my opinion I don't think many parents will put academics second but they would certainly push their kids to become athletes if they have a great potential. In Michelle's case she was a great athlete but she still continued to go to school and I don't think the sport was greater than her academics. I wanted to know if any of you know any good sites where I can find Female Asian mathematicians, I have a gorup of boys in my class who said that they don't know any female mathematicians and I want to put a power point with female mathematicians of every race. You will all be helping me a lot.

[Anonymous]

Here's a link to some great female mathematicians.

http://www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/women.htm

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the link. I've actually started to do the power point and I have some of the girls in the math class helping me gather the information. They are excited to help me out, and is a way for the female students that it takes hard work and perseverance to become a great person.

[Anonymous]

That's great. I hope it all works out.

[Author]

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