America is always the strongest country in sports. However, in 2008 Olympic Games, China overtook America and ranked the first in the golden medal list. Does it mean China's sports competitiveness has surpassed America? Well, in recent years China did make prominent progress in sports thanks to its endeavor on that. I am also very proud of our country's great achievement in sports. But in my opinion, there is still a big gap in sports between China and America. Although China won the most golden medals, these medals were mainly distributed in gymnastics, diving and some small items. In Olympics, track and field, swimming, basketball, football are the dominated sports items which can represent a country's sports competitiveness most, but China made few breakthroughs in these items while America did perfect jobs. So China still has a long way to go before becoming a strong country in sports.
I also want to talk about the different cultivating ways of athletes between China and America. In China, athletes began training when they were very young. They exercise every day and most of them do not take much knowledge course. All the skill they own is sports. Most of them do not have a good life. They have to exercise day and night and get poorly paid. When they retire, many cannot even make a living since they have not received sufficient education and have no diplomas. They can hardly create a successful career unless they make great achievements and become famous stars. However, in America, the situation is quite different. Most athletes have college degrees and they might begin training very late. They usually take up sports in high school or university and if they perform well they can choose it as their career. If they find themself difficult in that sports items, they can quit and do other things. Sports is just part of their life not all. It's hard to say whether this kind of cultivating way is good or not. Maybe it is good for athletes' personal development but not helpful to the country's sports development since it is not so strict. Or maybe it is a good cultivating way because athletes can be better qulified through education and they can be more competitive in the sports games.
I think China should learn experience in developing sports from the US in order to become a strong country in sports. We still have many big items such as football, swimming, track and field that need breakthroughs. So it's a long way to go. I hope China will become stronger and stronger in sports in the near future.
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ReplyDeleteSeveral days before, we had a trip to Tuner Field which is the home stadium of the Atlanta Olympic Games. It's really a wonderful stadium. I like that stadium very much, besides, I agree with you about the difference and the gap between Chinese and American. Chinese and American have lots of differences in sport spirits and styles. Yes, Chinese athletes' only skill is sports and they were trained when they were very young, most of them don't live a happy life after their sports career, I do think that Chinese should learn something from American, for example, sports should be something that can make our life better, it shouldn't be something that destroy our lives.
ReplyDeleteI went to turner field and realize that it's really a wonderful playground to play baseball.I wonder that I can play on the court. The guide said that the grass is protected every day. It's wonderful for a player to play baseball on this court. I will go to see the baseball match on Tuesday. Maybe it will be an unforgettable night.
ReplyDeleteThere are some opinions that I think I can share with the writer.
ReplyDeleteWhen we are taking part in the competition, we Chinese always forget our real goal.
I think the real goal to compete is to realize our weakness and strongness in comparison with others. Then, to improve ourselves.
Winning the golden medals should not be our final goal. In China, there is an ancient saying to decribe it, that on the way to pursuing something, we always forget about what is the most important.
And, I think both American athletes and Chinese athlete should be more polite, better at the basic etiquette.
Since they are the idol in most people's eyes, representing the nation they belong to, kind of a symbol
I don't agree with the first opinion in this post which is about the gap between the American and Chinese pro sports.Because, it is hard to define that what kind of sports represent the main level of a country's pro sports.It is just like that you can't judge engineer and writer which is superior.Different countries should have different advantage fields in pro sports.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I can not agree more with the second point in this article,our country do sacriface too much to develope sports and athlete,it is time to change the way we do now.
I went to turner field and saw the baseball game last night, now I can better understand the passion of American towards sports. The phenomenon of the stadium impressed me a lot and I really enjoy this kind of feeling. Shouting, applauding, jumping with people all around. The happiness of watching game may surpass the game itself,sometimes.
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ReplyDeleteI have some different ideas with the author views. In the first paragraph he thinks the gap still exist because most golden model China won came from some low-attention fields. As far as I'm concerned it may be one reason. However, a more important reason is, though China got more golden medals, America had more medals in total(China: Gold51, Silver,Bronze28, Total100 vs America: Gold36, Silver38, Bronze36, Total110). We can also find America get golden models as much as silver models and bronze models. While China get golden models more than the total of silver and bronze models. I think these evidences suggest that China may have more top players, but less good players than America, which means China focus more on smaller group of players and less people might take part in the pro sports than America.
ReplyDeleteTurner Field impressed me so much that I've never gone such a baseball stadium before.The grassland looks so perfect to play games on it which the guide told us it is protected everyday.The cubes among normal seats are also impressed me.They are the exclusive and wonderful place for rich to watch games and relax after work.I hope that I can also watch baseball games in that cubes one day in the future.
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