A former gymnastics world champion who was twice jailed for theft is trying to make a living by performing on the street in Beijing, putting the plight of retired athletes struggling with poverty, injury and joblessness under the spotlight.

A policeman forbids former world champion Zhang Shangwu from performing stunt for money at the Wangfujing Metro Station in Beijing on Friday, July 15, 2011. [Photo: Shanghai Daily]

Zhang Shangwu was seen performing gymnastic stunts in Beijing's Wangfujing Metro Station, in pictures posted on microblogging site Sina Weibo by "Langfeng."

Zhang had to give up his professional career when he ruptured a tendon in his heel, Langfeng said.

In Beijing, Zhang performed some of the moves which used to earn him gold medals, but could only raise a few dozen yuan a day, Langfeng tweeted, adding that Zhang had been ejected from the station by guards.

Zhang's distress was confirmed by Xing Aowei, who used to be a fellow team member. Xing said the online post was basically true and called for people to lend Zhang a hand "no matter what mistakes he had made before," Dahe.cn reported.

Zhang, a Hebei Province native, won two gold medals at the 2001 Summer Universiade in Beijing when he was 18.

Selected for the national team in 1995, Zhang was training for the 2004 Athens Olympics when injury forced his retirement in 2003.

Zhang was jailed twice in 2007 for theft.

Zhang's situation renewed attention on veteran athletes who suffered debilitating injuries, and who received little education and had no other skills.

Ai Dongmei, winner of the Beijing International Marathon in 1999, was forced to put her medals on sale after she and her husband were laid off in 2007. Ai made a living from setting up a stall on the street to sell children's cloths.

National weightlifting champion Zou Chunlan became a masseuse in a public bathhouse in 2006 when she retired. She could only make 1.45 yuan for each customer. Later, Zou opened a laundry after help from a wellwisher.

Of some 300,000 retired athletes, 80 percent were battling injury, poverty and unemployment, the China Sports Daily newspaper said.

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