Chinese swimming coaches have slammed reports about the "big-money training program" allegedly sold by Australian guru Ken Wood which helped turn Liu Zige into an Olympic champion at the just-concluded Beijing Games.
China's Liu Zige won the women's 200m butterfly gold medal in a world record time at the Beijing Olympics on Aug. 14.
They said such claims degraded their own efforts to train the 16-year-old and was a "lame" excuse to explain the shocking defeat of Jessicah Schipper, the Aussie world record holder who was unexpectedly relegated to third place by the Chinese duo of Liu and silver medal winner Jiao Liuyang in the women's 200m butterfly.
"That is purely an excuse and such claims are lame and unprofessional," Liu's coach Jin Wei told Titan Sports.
"They are just looking for an excuse for Jessicah's defeat. Anyone with a knowledge of professional swimming knows that no training program is confidential."
Schipper, 21, won three medals, including a relay gold in the women's 400m medley. She has split with Wood who coached her for nearly 10 years.
Her camp, including her parents, are angry with Wood for helping Liu to beat Schipper in Beijing as they believed the coach sold Schipper's training program to Liu, who trained alongside the Aussie in Brisbane earlier this year for several months.
Wood denied the program he sold to the Chinese side was specific to Schipper.
Jin, a former swimmer from Shanghai and a member of China's new generation of coaches who are willing to spend a lot of time training overseas, said he respected Wood and learned a lot from the Aussie but that does not mean all of Liu's winning ways come from Wood.
"Ken is a very nice person and gave me a lot of help. I sort of see him as my mentor.
"But for training, everyone has their own program. We have some very advanced methods in China. If we copied everything from overseas, I don't think we would be able achieve so much."
In the past two years, Jin has repeatedly taken Liu and men's swimmer Shi Feng to Australia to train with local coaches, including Wood.
"The main reason for these overseas trips is to open their eyes," Jin said.
Another Chinese swimming coach, Wei Yaping, whose protg Tan Miao won a silver in the women's 4x200m freestyle relay, said the comments were discriminatory and humiliated Jin and his fellow Chinese coaches.
Liu Zige of China receives congratulations from Jessicah Schipper of Australia after the women's 200m butterfly final at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in the National Aquatics Center, also known as the Water Cube in Beijing, China, Aug. 14, 2008. Liu won the gold medal with a new world record of 2 minutes 4.18 seconds.
"They always have doubts, whether we are good or bad," he said. "Now they say we bought their training program. That just proves they are looking at Chinese swimming in a distorted way.
"Jin is a very good coach and has his own training program. Ken Wood is not the only person he learnt from."
In comparison to the shock in the Australian camp regarding Liu's victory, the Chinese side looked calm.
"Liu broke the world record in May's nationals and we expected a good performance at the Beijing Games," Chinese coach Pan Jiazhang said after Liu's race.
"There are many things that led to Liu's triumph, such as her swimsuit and spectators. But I think the home advantage which allowed us to prepare well was the main reason."
Jiao, finished second to Liu, who also broke Schipper's former world mark, and praised her winning teammate.
"She trained really hard and I am not surprised that she came out as the winner," said Jiao who finished fourth in the event at the 2007 Worlds.
As for Liu, it seemed she was not affected by the fuss as she returned to training on Tuesday quietly in Beijing after concluding an exhibition trip to Hong Kong and Macao, alongside other Chinese Olympic gold medalists.
"I miss water," Liu said before her first post-Games training session. "Nothing makes me happier than swimming."
After the showcase trip where she was treated with huge enthusiasm from Hong Kong and Macao residents, the swimmer said she is more comfortable with a quiet life rather than living as a star.
"The trip was more exhausting than the training. I am not used to it," she said. "I like quietness and I like to sit alone."
Source: China Daily
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment