Word: weights
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...scouts trawl China's vast countryside and jam-packed cities every year to find the best athletic prospects. Kids with tiny hips and flexible limbs are funneled into gymnastics or diving, children with lightning-quick reflexes are destined for table tennis or badminton, while beefier types are tagged as weight lifters. At nearly every elementary school around the nation, amateur anatomists measure youths' bones to predict their future heights, and the tallest are reserved for provincial volleyball, basketball or handball squads. "Just name the sport," says Xu Guangshu, former principal of the Shichahai Sports School in Beijing, another Olympic cradle...
...years ago, "talent-selection officers" spotted Xu Jiamin, the now-12-year-old daughter of Guangdong farmers, and recruited her for her long legs, short torso and large hands?ideal attributes for a weight lifter. Xu had never heard of weight lifting when the scouts approached her, and she says her parents weren't sure a career lifting barbells was what they wanted for their little girl. But the officers impressed upon them that weight lifting could be Xu's ticket out of rural poverty. Besides, with Beijing 2008 coming up, Xu might one day represent her nation on home...
...Poor Chinese farmers don't tend to disagree with government officials putting on a hard sell, so Xu's parents relented, allowing her to be sent to a district-level sports school, where she cried for days at the prospect of constantly lifting heavy weights. Xu transferred to Weilun last year, where she now trains six hours a day, six days a week. She sees her parents once a year. During the school year, Xu also attends a couple of hours of class a day, but she admits she's often too tired to pay attention during the evening academic...
...field in America. "In addition to good training, our women can eat bitterness more than women from other countries," boasts Wei Hongquan, a publicity official with the State General Administration of Sport. "That's why we are so strong in women's sports." Case in point: when women's weight lifting became an official Olympic sport in 2000, China captured four out of seven available gold medals, while the Chinese men won only one gold. In Sydney, China's women topped Chairman Mao's famous maxim that "women hold up half the sky" by capturing 60% of the nation...
HEINZ KERRY: People and their stories are the inspiration. The downsides are my inability to control my weight because I'm not exercising. For peace of mind, the mind-set is, Stay calm, stay humble, stay strong physically and keep a great sense of humor...