 By Caroline. |
By Caroline. |
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Sun Xiaojiao, beauty of the aurora (page 2). In the meantime, the gymnast and her teammates are housed in a renovated building; this building lies in the heart of a sports complex accommodating the national teams for other sports. The entrance to the residence is under permanent surveillance by a soldier, and the gymnasts (who all have badges) live in comfortable apartments in groups of 4-5 with a trainer to supervise them. With a communal kitchen, and a television and video recorder in each room, the gymnasts want for nothing. From the moment they become part of the national team the State pays them a modest salary, but one which rises according to the victories they achieve, thus creating a bonus system. When they finish gymnastics, the State will also take care of their school fees, and they will be able to join a university whilst being exempt from the formidable entrance examination. In a country with over a billion inhabitants, gymnastics and sport in general remain an avenue for social climbing - even more so now that the 2008 Olympics are coming to China, with the tremendous enthusiasm that they unleash. A gymnast who wins an Olympic gold medal cashes a bonus of one million Yuans (approximately 800 000 francs), is offered an apartment and signs numerous advertising contracts. So inevitably for all the Asian gymnasts, their motivation is geared towards this event!  Sun Xiaojiao dreams of following in the footsteps of Liu Xuan, the Olympic beam champion in Sydney. She is a role model for Sun, almost a big sister who today leads a glorious life in the sequined world of television. It won't have escaped your notice that the two gymnasts share certain similarities: for a start, they are both beam specialists who won World Cup titles on this event two years prior to an Olympics - for Liu Xuan the year was 1998 and for Sun it was 2002. What's more, both Liu Xuan and her younger compatriot have atypical physiques for Chinese gymnasts, who are normally 1m 35 tall and light as a feather. These two more mature gymnasts are several kilos heavier on the scales. "Before, the trainer was forever saying to Xuan that she had to lose weight, now he says the same thing to me!" she confided to us whilst laughing. "At the beginning of 2002 I got injured and rapidly gained weight, I got as high as 52 kilos, even my friend Xuan never got as heavy as that! So I had to follow a diet based on fruit. It's terrible because I love eating and easily put on the pounds!" And then Sun Xiaojiao sometimes has doubts. "I may stop in 2003. Some of my teammates are as good as me on beam and better on the other pieces. The training sessions are very tough and I'm tired of constantly watching what I eat." She took part at Bercy in 2001, then again in 2002; one hopes naturally to see her here again next March for the 2003 event. As the saying goes, things always happen in threes. However, nothing could be less certain, as in spite of her excellent results Sun Xiaojiao's spot on the Chinese team is not guaranteed. The trainers currently appear to prefer other young and more daring talents to her. The writing is on the wall. She wasn't sent to Debrecen alongside the two rising stars, Zan Nan and Kang Xin, but was relegated to the World Cup circuit. Adriana Pop, choreographer for the French centre at Marseilles, went to the Chinese national centre last August in order to choreograph some of the floor routines. She was put in charge of those with the potential to make the team in 2003-2004; XiaoJiao did not form part of the group. Is it to be her swan song? We can't be sure - Liu Xuan also experienced a decline in fortunes. Despite reservations, her trainers finally kept her on the Olympic team, and as we know today, she had great success. Sun also has a card to play for the 2004 Games, a card that the Chinese gymnasts in general don't possess - her experience and her endurance. When the Games arrive, she will be 20. It's not beyond the bounds of possibility that the champion of Paris might become the champion of Athens. Sun Xiaojiao, star or shooting star? Time will tell. |
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