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	TX: 08.05.08 - Chinese Paralympic Team PRESENTER: PETER WHITE AND JOHN WAITE

	Downloaded from www.bbc.co.uk/radio4 THE ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT. BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF MISHEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE 麻豆约拍 CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS COMPLETE ACCURACY. WAITE There's been a great deal written and spoken about the huge efforts the Chinese are putting into their performance at the Beijing Olympics later this year. Peter has been to China to see the approach in action with the country's paralympic team, which already leads the world. WHITE The first official Paralympic Games took place in Rome in 1960 but it wasn't until 1984 that China emerged from its diplomatic isolation to take part in New York. By 1996 China was beginning was beginning to make a real impact with 16 gold medals. By 2004 they'd shot past all their opponents, their 63 golds in Athens was almost twice as many as their nearest rivals - the UK. So how has this been achieved in such a short time? Well I'm on my way at the moment to their training centre at Shuni, where You and Yours is being given exclusive access to try to find out. Well we've just driven into the Shuni complex, it's a gorgeous day and I'm with Stephen Hallett our translator. Just describe this place to me Stephen. HALLETT Well it's huge. We're on the flat plain, part of the North China plain, surrounded by low trees and they've basically cut this chunk out of the countryside. It's a big square area with these low flat buildings, the first one we saw when we came in looked like basically a hangar, it was a bit like one of those container port buildings, sort of metallic. And then coming in here there are a couple of concrete admin buildings and then there are two or three stadia and a running track and it's just vast. WHITE So is it a bit forbidding? HALLETT It is, partly because it's so new, it looks like a new industrial estate really. WHITE Okay, let's go and meet the boss. ROW My name is Li Row [phon.]. I am staff of the China Administration of Sports for Persons with Disabilities. WHITE So tell me a bit of the background to this centre here. ROW This centre was completed last July and was launched into operation in September last year. It is the first of its kind in China dedicated to disability sports training. WHITE You say that it's the first of its kind, what's different about it? ROW In China there are many training facilities for persons with disabilities but before all the facilities are mainly shared with the able bodied people. WHITE Why do you think you've managed to achieve such success over recent years? ROW That's owed to the great support and concerns from the government and also the China Disabled Persons Federation. Also government investment increased and also the social awareness improved. WHITE So when would disabled people come to this centre? ROW We are planning to have them training here for two or three months prior to the national competition. WHITE Where have you been recruiting the disabled athletes from? ROW The athletes are the national team, selected from the teams at a provincial level. Each province, cities, has their own team. So the average of the national teams comes from these teams. WHITE And are you concentrating on the sports at which China has done particularly well or are you trying to improve also in the sports where maybe you weren't quite so good? ROW Yes, well we attach equal importance to all the sports. [Laughing] WHITE But you will be trying to get medals in those sports as well, as if you hadn't won enough already. [Laughing] ROW We are trying our best. WHITE Are you expecting to improve on the 63 gold medals you won in Athens? ROW [Laughter] No one can tell. I would like to have an agreement with you - you can ask the British athletes to let more gold medals to the Chinese athletes this time and then next time, in Great Britain, we can ask the Chinese athletes to leave moreto them. [Laughter]. WHITE And wheelchair basketball perhaps symbolises the Chinese determination to compete at everything in their home Olympics, not just concentrate, as in the past, on their strong suits. No major tournament successes so far for the women's wheelchair basketball team but they're now undergoing months of intensive training to bring them up to Olympic standard. Hello, hello. BASKETBALL ATHLETE Nice to meet you. WHITE Oh you speak English. BASKETBALL ATHLETE Oh a little. WHITE A little, well that's wonderful. Can you tell me how you began to play this game? BASKETBALL ATHLETE Through interpreter I'm called Hang Su Lin [phon.] and I started practising wheelchair basketball in 2003 but only entered the national team in 2004. So I've been with the team ever since then. WHITE And how hard is the training here? BASKETBALL ATHLETE through interpreter Of course the training is very tough but if we want to do well then we have to go through tough training. WHITE Tell me about your training programme - how much do you work a day? BASKETBALL ATHLETE through interpreter We train three hours in the morning and three hours in the afternoon and sometimes we do some training in the evening as well. WHITE That's a lot. We've just come into another part of the training area which sounds vast to me Stephen, can you just describe this area that we're in? HALLETT Well it's like a huge hangar, I can barely see the edge of it it's so large, with a track - a raised track actually - in the middle, rather elegant sort of grey carpets and orange walls. And it's huge, you can sort of sense the size of it. WHITE It's quite high isn't it, how far is it stretching ahead of us? HALLETT Further than I can make out really, it's sort of - well we're sort of halfway down this building at the moment and probably about another 50 yards beyond us and then there are some windows at the end. But it's a very, very large space. WHITE That's Li Duan warming up for this morning's long jump practice. In Athens he won two of China's 63 gold medals for long jump and triple jump. This time he plans to add a third in the javelin. DUAN through interpreter Well it's a very good facility, this, because it is designed specially with disabled people in mind, so China has built this facility and the accessibility and the sports facilities themselves are all really good. WHITE You've already been very successful, can you tell me a little bit about how you got started in athletics? DUAN through interpreter I used to be an athlete and I was in the basketball team then I actually lost my sight through an accident, so before I was sighted and then of course after the accident I lost my sight I was very worried about what I could in the future but what I found was that I could still run, I could still jump - it didn't really make any difference to my abilities - and I could take part in disabled sports in a way which could be really meaningful. And of course my aim was to do well and also to bring glory to China. And so although I can't see in front of me, although all I see is darkness, but in my heart I feel very, very bright. WHITE The run up of course is key for the long jump, can you just tell us what's in your mind as you run up? DUAN through interpreter All I think about is that I must run in a straight line and I must land in the sandpit, although it's going to be really painful. I also need to land well, otherwise I'm going to lose points. What I must do is concentrate on the sound ahead of me - so the guidance sounds which help me to run in the right direction. WHITE Are they human sounds, how do you get your signal? DUAN through interpreter There are actually two sounds, one is clapping and there's also some shouting. And I'm dependent on my guides to guide me in the right direction. So there are two guides and I can steer in the right direction by hearing which side the sound is coming from. WHITE You were an athlete when you could see, can you remember the first time you tried to do this when you were blind? DUAN through interpreter I had the feeling that I couldn't - I couldn't dare to run ahead, it was as if there were tigers ahead of me and it was like a string pulling me from behind, holding me back. And so it was overcoming that fear. I had this feeling that I wanted to run out of the darkness ahead of me and I wanted to run into the light, I wanted to find light ahead of me. WHITE So how has this success been achieved? China's huge population alone doesn't explain it. Their paralympic success outstrips their mainstream success, where countries like the United States and Russia still run ahead of them. I've come to see Xang Zin Sheng [phon.] chairman of the CDPF - the disability organisation which is nonetheless very closely linked to the government. It was founded by Deng Pu Fang [phon.], the disabled son of former Chinese Deng Xhau Ping [phon.]. With such connections it has access to resources our own British Paralympic Association can only dream about. But will this trickle down to ordinary disabled people in China? Any official Chinese interview involves formality and the need to listen to long lists of facts and figures. But I persevere in my search for information. Can I ask - China has achieved tremendous success in paralympic sport over the past decade or so, how has this been achieved? SHENG through interpreter CDPF is the national supreme body for the work of sports of disabled persons. And we also established a specialised centre for supervising the disabled persons sports affairs called National Administration Centre for the Sports of People with Disabilities, which was established in the year 2003. And in the year 2006 under CDPF we established a department of sports, which is also responsible for the sports issues relating to disabled persons. WHITE Does the Chinese government think that success in the Paralympics will add to its prestige? SHENG through interpreter China's people have been dreaming of hosting Olympic Games for almost one hundred years and the dream is going to be realised in about one hundred days. To the 83 million disabled persons in China the Paralympic Games is going to be a vehicle to demonstrate to the whole world an open and civilised and developed China which combines the ancient civilisation and the modern face. WHITE Do you think those benefits will spread out from Beijing - and the big cities - to the countryside areas which are known to be quite poor, where disabled people might lack facilities more than people in the cities? SHENG through interpreter I think that thanks to the public awareness raised by the Paralympic Games the local governments will give more support and attention to the living of people with disabilities. You know that the Paralympic Games is supported and welcomed by people living in every part of China. I believe that when they get to know the Paralympic Games they can get to know the living conditions and difficulties of people with disabilities. WHITE Meanwhile back at Shuni Training Centre the cerebral palsy football team is enjoying its afternoon training session. And you're forced to conclude that the real answer to the question is almost limitless money, training and perhaps most important of all time. Will you go home at all, do you go and see your families? VOX POP through interpreter Recently we don't have much opportunity for that. After the competitions we'll be able to go home. WHITE Where do you live? How far is that? VOX POP through interpreter About 2,000 kilometres. WHITE Right, so you can't nip home for the evening. VOX POP through interpreter We won't get home at all really. WHITE Not at all? VOX POP through interpreter That's how it should be yeah. WAITE And we'll have more of Peter's reports from China over the next few weeks. Back to the Transcripts homepage Back to the You and Yours homepage The 麻豆约拍 is not responsible for external websites

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