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| Zhang Shangwu |
The babyfaced Zhang was impressive, especially on vault, where he threw a near-perfect looking handspring double front, a huge vault for that era (bonus: in the same video, you get a very young Marian Dragulescu doing a layout Podkopayeva on his marquee event).
Zhang did not make China's gold-medal winning 2000 Olympic team, though he did compete at the 2001 Universaide in Beijing (and won two gold medals.) Then, like so many talented elite gymnasts, he disappeared into the system and was never heard from again.
Until 48 hours ago, when The China Daily ran an article on the last decade of his life. It was hardly glamourous -- desperate for money after being dismissed from the national team when he was injured prior to the 2004 Olympics, Zhang took to stealing. He was caught after taking electronics equipment from Beijing Xiannongtan Sports School, and spent almost four years in prison. His injury keeps him from doing manual labor, he said. So when he got out of jail, the only way he could think to make money was to busk, performing gymnastics stunts outside a metro station in Beijing.
Police chased him off, but their refusal to let him earn the most meager of incomes has stoked an outpouring of support that is likely to change his life for the better. 2008 Olympic champion Yang Wei, also a member of the 2001 Universaide squad, has agreed to meet with Zhang, and he has been offered at least one job since the story broke.
So Zhang's is a story likely to have a happy ending. But surely he's not the only ex-athlete in China (or around the world, for that matter) in this situation. Zhang's story seems to be a microcosm of a large problem, especially in countries where athletes may train much harder than they study, if they study at all.
The publicity his story has received has made Zhang into an advocate for retired elite athletes. Here's a telling couple of paragraphs from The China Daily:
"I want the public to know how hard athletes train. And I want to take the opportunity to raise thepublic and government's awareness about retired athletes. I hope they can give more help toretired athletes."
There has been heavy criticism in the media about how little help Zhang received from thesports system since a tendon injury in 2003 ended his career.
Born in Baoding, Hebei province, and admitted to the national gymnastics team in 1995, Zhangwon two gold medals at the Beijing Universiade. Howeve
r, his promising gymnastics careercame to a sudden standstill in 2003 when he suffered a tendon injury and failed to be selected for China's gymnastics team for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.
After his dismissal from the national team, Zhang joined a provincial team. There, he said he requested a recommendation from a provincial coach to be able to study at a sports school. The coach, he said, refused.
To be fair, Zhang did receive a severance of almost $10,000 when he left the national team, according to the same article. Another version of the story presents Zhang as a discipline problem who was kicked off the national team despite the best efforts of coaches to counsel him.
Since his release from prison, Zhang has been homeless on the streets of Beijing.
Your take: What do you think about Zhang's story? Should there be regulations in place that require athletes to study a certain number of hours (thereby ensuring they get a decent education) or should there be government pensions for retired athletes?
