Standing on the champions' podium with a gold medal gracing his or her chest, watching the national flag rising with the majestic national anthem filling the stadium, is the dream of many Chinese athletes.

However, the retired life of these athletes, who have won great glory for their motherland, is not always satisfactory.

Some of the athletes, who continue to hold the public eye, choose to study after retirement.

Deng Yaping, the table tennis Olympic and world champion, graduated from Tsinghua University after retirement with a Bachelor's degree and received her Masters degree from Nottingham University in the UK. She is now working with the marketing department of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad and at the same time pursuing her Doctor's degree at Cambridge University.

Fu Mingxia, who also won many gold medals in Olympics and world championships, entered Tsinghua University right after retirement and is already a happy mother, having married Hong Kong's former Financial Secretary Anthony Leung.

Doing business is another choice. In the business field, Li Ning, the Olympic gymnastics champion, has successfully turned from sports to business, establishing his own sporting goods company, which is one of the best in China.

Some athletes chose to continue their sports careers as coaches, such as the former "Diving Queen" Gao Min, table tennis champion Liu Guoliang and Olympic badminton champion Ji Xinpeng.

There are also some retired athletes who have found their niche in the media, such as Mo Huilan, the gymnastics champion who presently works as a sports anchorwoman for Phoenix TV in Hong Kong.

Vague future

However, not all retired athletes find jobs like those mentioned above that provide them with such security and comfortable living.

The fame of the top athletes helps them a lot when they start looking for a second occupation. But most athletes, all of whom abandoned their studies to undergo hard training at an early age yet won no big titles, do not have such an easy time of it in finding a rewarding job after retirement from competition.

Liu Fei, a member of China's 1998 Acrobatic Gymnastics World Championships women's trios champion squad, is still looking for a job after having retired in 2000.

"My hard life began the day I retired," says 25-year-old Liu. "I have no place of my own, no job and no basic income. I don't even know what to put on my residence card."

Cai Li, a weightlifting gold medallist at the 1990 Beijing Asian Games, worked as a security guard after retiring in 1997 and died of a respiratory disease last year, which was the result of his previous hard training.

According to Cai's sister Cai Hong, his monthly income as a security guard from year 2000 to his death was less than 1,000 yuan (US$120).

"While weightlifting, my brother did nothing but train every day," said his sad sister. "Knowing too little about the outside world made it hard for him to find a decent position after he retired from sports."

According to statistics, in 1989, 26.49 percent of the total number of retired athletes were looking for jobs.

From 1993 to 1996, 26.53 percent of the retired athletes in seven provinces, regions and cities, including Shanghai, Tianjin, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Guangdong, Guangxi and Shaanxi, had not found suitable jobs, which means that the stories of Liu and Cai are not isolated.

With the reform of China's labour and employment system intensifying, the reemployment problems of retired athletes will become more and more difficult, officials say.

First, all levels of government are in the process of reforming and streamlining government organs, which makes it more difficult for retired athletes to find places than it used to be.

Second, there is now fierce competition for the positions in most organizations and companies, which means little chance for retired athletes, who lack education skills outside their training field.

The depressing future employment prospects of athletes may cause some troubles for the development of Chinese sport. Some sports in which China has done very well may experience setbacks because not enough new people are getting involved, observers warn.

According to a survey conducted in 2002 in Beijing's Haidian District by the Beijing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), almost no parents want to enroll their children in sports programmes, especially for sports that are not widely popular.

Athletes engaged in popular sports in China, such as table tennis, track and field and badminton, find it comparatively easy to find a new life after retiring.

Taking up coaching, either at home or abroad, or entering universities that recruit candidates with sports skills are the common choices for them.

While athletes who are engaged in less popular events, such as those with weight categories, like weightlifting, often have to struggle hard after retirement.

Study, a good beginning

Fortunately, these harsh facts have drawn the government's attention recently. Some retired athletes have been given the chance to hit the books again, through arrangements made by the Chinese State General Administration of Sports (CSGAS), which seems to augur well for future retiring athletes.

Beijing International Studies University, in co-operation with CSGAS, is hosting a programme for qualified retired athletes to resume their studies there.

Wang Jun, vice-minister of CSGAS, has announced that the first group of 31 retired athletes, including Dong Fangxiao, who won five gold medals in gymnastics at the 2001 Asian Games, Liu Hongyu, walking champion of the 1999 World Track and Field Championships, and Deng Yong, a member of China's 1993 Diving World Cup champion squad, began pre-college classes at Beijing International Studies University this March and will enter the English Department of the college formally in September, after passing the qualifying examination.

"Helping all the retired athletes who have made great contributions to our country to settle down in their new lives is a big concern for the government," said Wan Bo'ao, director of the Human Resource Developing Centre of CSGAS. "Besides recommending them to colleges, we also try to recommend some of them for coaching careers or academic programmes in other countries."

Some other government departments have also raised useful suggestions for dealing with the problem. "Making full use of their speciality is the most efficient way to solve the problem," said Meng Qingwei, director of the Shenyang Human Resource Centre. "As interest in body-building is increasing with the improving of the living standard, reemploying these professional athletes as coaches or instructors in some mass participation events is sure to be an effective way."

Some members of the Beijing Committee of the CPPCC suggested that promoting more co-operation with colleges is another way. "Colleges should try to register members of sports teams as students to let them compete for the colleges and send experienced professors to teach the team members, which would help young players raise their academic level while training."

"At any rate, co-operation with Beijing International Studies University is a good beginning," stated Director Wan. "We will continue to make greater efforts to help solve the difficult situation retired athletes find themselves in."

(China Daily  June 15, 2004)