zhang shangwu, Top Chinese gymnast found begging on the street, Half a decade after retirement, China's Zhang Shangwu is an unlikely celebrity
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In 2000, Zhang Shangwu came to the U.S. to compete at the International Team Championship, a now defunct competition that gave up-and-comers a platform to gain high-level competition experience during the late '90s and early '00s.
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 gymn
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?
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Zhang Shangwu, 28, a specialist on the still rings, had even sold the two gold medals he won at the World University championships in 2001 for just £10 in order to buy food.
Mr Zhang said there were others like him who had found themselves in a desperate situation after being cut loose from China's state-run sports system.
Speaking on a mobile phone he bought for 30 yuan (£2.90) in order to find work, Mr Zhang said he had received a phone call recently from another struggling gymnast.
"He thought I might draw some attention to the problem. But I can barely look after myself at the moment, let alone take on anyone else's worries," he said.
Born into a peasant family in Baoding, Hebei province, Mr Zhang was sent to a local gymnastics academy at the age of five. After seven years of gruelling training, he showed enough promise to be selected to China's national team and in 2001 he was entered by officials into the World University Games, despite not having an education outside his sport.
His gold medal-winning performance was the highlight of his career, and he seemed certain to make the cut for the 2004 Athens Olympics until he broke his left Achilles tendon in training in 2002.
He never fully recovered, missed the games, and in 2005 he retired with a 38,000 yuan (£3,650) pay-off from the government in his home province of Hebei. "The money meant the local team no longer had to take any liability for my future," he said.
"After I left the sports system, I got a job as a food delivery boy, but after a while my injury got worse and worse so eventually I couldn't run or even walk for long periods".
His savings were wiped out, he said, when his grandfather had a brain haemorrhage. "That used up all my remaining money, and then I was forced to sell my medals because I did not have any money for food."
Shortly afterwards, in 2007, he turned to theft and was arrested in Beijing, only being released in April this year. "Since I got out, I have been begging and I was sleeping overnight in an internet café," he said.
Mr Zhang's situation has shocked China, which spares no effort in honouring the winners of Olympic gold medals, showering them and their families with gifts. Critics said that it was unacceptable for the majority of athletes, who retire in anonymity, to be left in difficult circumstances.
Xing Aowei, a former team-mate of Mr Zhang and a winner at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, told a Chinese website that he was concerned about the impact his story would have on gymnastics.
"With a world champion descending into such a life, who would want to be a gymnast in the future?" he asked.
Other Chinese sportsmen have also struggled after leaving the protective blanket of the national team. Ai Dongmei, a former marathon champion, sold the 10 medals she had won in international competitions in order to support her family after her husband was laid off. Zou Chunlan, the national female weightlifting champion, worked at a public bathhouse as a masseuse.
Mr Zhang said he was now living in a hotel paid for by a Chinese newspaper and was happy to accept charity until he finds himself a stable job.
