Fitter nation has better sporting chance of success
Updated: 2018-08-07 16:29
Fireworks explode over the National Stadium during the Closing Ceremony for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games on August 24, 2008. Mark Dadswell / Getty Images
A decade after Beijing hosted the 2008 Olympics, the public is taking exercise in its stride.
The International Olympic Committee described 2008 Beijing Olympic as the Games of records and superlatives on its website. “The Opening Ceremony was unforgettable; the athletes’ achievements were astonishing, the organization was excellent; the venues breathtaking and the anti-doping tests were stricter. Several hundred million watched worldwide on TV as more than 40 world records and over 130 Olympic records were broken.”
Since then, China has been going from strength to strength.
According to the results of the fifth national sports field survey published by the General Administration of Sports in 2005, there were 850,000 sports venues in China, with only 6.58 venues per 10,000 people and an area of 1.03 square meters per capita.
By the end of 2017, the number of stadiums increased to 1.95 million, according to the Report on Mass Sports Development of China 2018, which was unveiled by the General Administration of Sports and Shanghai University of Sport. It means there were about 14.08 venues for every 10,000 people on average, with an area of 1.66 square meters per capita, showing that the sports venues and fitness facilities have been widely established throughout the country.
Moreover, the number of non-governmental sports organizations registered in China had an increase of 10.86 percent annually. There were three fitness sites for 10,000 people on average.
The report also noted that there were more than 2 million social sports instructors, along with more than 210,000 professional coaches and 184,000 pool attendants. Nearly 3,300 national fitness activities were held in 2017 alone, involving more than 90 million people.
Zheng Jiakun, deputy editor-in-chief of the report and professor at Shanghai University of Sport, said China’s non-competitive sports developed fast over the past years, with the people-centered sports facilities and services increasingly improved.
From 2010 to 2015, around 40,000 new athletes and about 1,000 new coaches of all grades were recognized each year.
Between 2008 and 2017, Chinese athletes won 1,177 world championships and broke world records in 125 sport events.
However, the report said the development of mass sports in the country was still not balanced. Fitness was concentrated in the elderly and female sections and fitness levels and consciousness among the young and middle-aged was relatively weak. And an hour’s recommended daily exercise for students was often ignored.
The average life expectancy of Chinese citizens increased in a decade, from 72.95 years in 2005 to 76.34 years in 2015.
The 2014 National Physique Index survey showed that the comprehensive physique index of all Chinese people was 100.54, higher than the figure of 2010, which was 100.39, showing an increased average physical condition.
The index is based on data of Chinese people in 2,000, which took into consideration 20 specific dimensions of physical condition.
At the same time, sport as an industry also witnessed rapid growth over the past decade.
In 2008, the sports industry generated added value of 155.5 billion yuan ($23 billion), accounting for 0.52 percent of that year’s GDP, while in 2016, the industry generated added value of 647,5 billion yuan, up 17.8 percent than the previous year and accounting for 0.9 percent of GDP that year.
Sports-related manufacturing was the top segment in the industry, contributing 286.4 billion yuan in added value in 2016, accounting for 44.2 percent.
The average annual growth rate over the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-15) was 21.12 percent.
Jiang Xiaojuan, professor of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the sports industry has huge potential in China.
“Because China has the largest domestic market, the largest number of big cities of over 1 million people, abundant capital and strong will to invest, the government and the market can join hands to help the industry grow,” she said.
She added that sports services take a larger share than manufacturing in the sports industry overseas, while in China, the situation has long been the other way round, where sports-related manufacturing takes a dominant role, although the service section has been growing fast over recent years.
“China is a world manufacturing center of sport equipment. It is our advantage, creating lots of fortune and jobs,” Jiang said. “A future shift of the industrial structure depends on the speeding up of sport services, not reducing the scale of manufacturing.”
Fireworks explode over the National Stadium during the Closing Ceremony for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games on August 24, 2008. Mark Dadswell / Getty Images
A decade after Beijing hosted the 2008 Olympics, the public is taking exercise in its stride.
The International Olympic Committee described 2008 Beijing Olympic as the Games of records and superlatives on its website. “The Opening Ceremony was unforgettable; the athletes’ achievements were astonishing, the organization was excellent; the venues breathtaking and the anti-doping tests were stricter. Several hundred million watched worldwide on TV as more than 40 world records and over 130 Olympic records were broken.”
Since then, China has been going from strength to strength.
According to the results of the fifth national sports field survey published by the General Administration of Sports in 2005, there were 850,000 sports venues in China, with only 6.58 venues per 10,000 people and an area of 1.03 square meters per capita.
By the end of 2017, the number of stadiums increased to 1.95 million, according to the Report on Mass Sports Development of China 2018, which was unveiled by the General Administration of Sports and Shanghai University of Sport. It means there were about 14.08 venues for every 10,000 people on average, with an area of 1.66 square meters per capita, showing that the sports venues and fitness facilities have been widely established throughout the country.
Moreover, the number of non-governmental sports organizations registered in China had an increase of 10.86 percent annually. There were three fitness sites for 10,000 people on average.
The report also noted that there were more than 2 million social sports instructors, along with more than 210,000 professional coaches and 184,000 pool attendants. Nearly 3,300 national fitness activities were held in 2017 alone, involving more than 90 million people.
Zheng Jiakun, deputy editor-in-chief of the report and professor at Shanghai University of Sport, said China’s non-competitive sports developed fast over the past years, with the people-centered sports facilities and services increasingly improved.
From 2010 to 2015, around 40,000 new athletes and about 1,000 new coaches of all grades were recognized each year.
Between 2008 and 2017, Chinese athletes won 1,177 world championships and broke world records in 125 sport events.
However, the report said the development of mass sports in the country was still not balanced. Fitness was concentrated in the elderly and female sections and fitness levels and consciousness among the young and middle-aged was relatively weak. And an hour’s recommended daily exercise for students was often ignored.
The average life expectancy of Chinese citizens increased in a decade, from 72.95 years in 2005 to 76.34 years in 2015.
The 2014 National Physique Index survey showed that the comprehensive physique index of all Chinese people was 100.54, higher than the figure of 2010, which was 100.39, showing an increased average physical condition.
The index is based on data of Chinese people in 2,000, which took into consideration 20 specific dimensions of physical condition.
At the same time, sport as an industry also witnessed rapid growth over the past decade.
In 2008, the sports industry generated added value of 155.5 billion yuan ($23 billion), accounting for 0.52 percent of that year’s GDP, while in 2016, the industry generated added value of 647,5 billion yuan, up 17.8 percent than the previous year and accounting for 0.9 percent of GDP that year.
Sports-related manufacturing was the top segment in the industry, contributing 286.4 billion yuan in added value in 2016, accounting for 44.2 percent.
The average annual growth rate over the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-15) was 21.12 percent.
Jiang Xiaojuan, professor of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the sports industry has huge potential in China.
“Because China has the largest domestic market, the largest number of big cities of over 1 million people, abundant capital and strong will to invest, the government and the market can join hands to help the industry grow,” she said.
She added that sports services take a larger share than manufacturing in the sports industry overseas, while in China, the situation has long been the other way round, where sports-related manufacturing takes a dominant role, although the service section has been growing fast over recent years.
“China is a world manufacturing center of sport equipment. It is our advantage, creating lots of fortune and jobs,” Jiang said. “A future shift of the industrial structure depends on the speeding up of sport services, not reducing the scale of manufacturing.”
