Wang Pinyi, one of China’s top gymnastics coaches, defected to Taiwan in 1981 to escape from political persecution.
After having trained Taiwanese gymnasts for 27 years, Wang — 87 and suffering from thyroid cancer — plans to retire and return to his home in Kunming, China, but not before realizing his last dream.
“I will keep working until the 2010 Asian Games. I hope my students can bring back at least one medal in the women’s gymnastics event,” he said in his bedroom, which is in a corner of the gymnastics hall in Pumen High School, Kaohsiung County.
Of the six Taiwanese female gymnasts who have qualified for the 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou, China, five are from the Pumen High School.
Wang was born in 1930 in Yunnan Province. He began to learn gymnastics in primary school and in high school, he swept five gold medals in gymnastics events in the Yunnan Province Games.
In 1958, Wang became the head coach for the Yunnan gymnastics team. He produced some of China’s finest gymnasts, including Zhang Jian, the coach of Li Ning, China’s best gymnast in recent years.
But instead of fame and wealth, Wang’s achievements in sports brought him disaster.
In 1960, Wang challenged the policy that politics should come first in sport by urging the government to use material incentives to spur athletes. The statement made him the target of political campaigns in the next 20 years.
Seeing no way out of his misfortune, Wang in 1981 crossed the border into Thailand, hoping to seek political asylum in the US or Canada.
Taiwan learned about Wang’s defection and granted him asylum first. Wang arrived in Taipei in 1981. He was 51.
He was entrusted with the task of training gymnasts, about which Taiwan knew very little.
“The first thing the Taiwan government asked me to do was to hold a month-long seminar for Taiwan’s gymnastics teachers, coaches and athletes. I taught them the categories of gymnastics events and how to select a gymnast, because they knew nothing about gymnastics,” he said.
Wang trained gymnasts at the Tsoying National Athletes’ Training Center in Kaohsiung until 1990, when he set up the training camp at the Pumen High School.
While there are a dozen gymnastics training camps in Taiwan, Wang’s is different because his training starts from kindergarten and runs through high school.
Wang believes Taiwan should train student athletes in after-class hours, but should start from kindergarten.
“With a good coach and intensive training, you can produce some good gymnastics in six to 10 years,” he said.
In 2005, Wang asked China if he could return to Kunming to visit his wife and four children, and the request was granted.
He admires China’s achievements but hates the politics in China’s sports. Taking the example of the Beijing Olympics, Wang said that Chinese referees raised the scores of Chinese athletes.
“In men’s horizontal bar and in women’s uneven bar events, the two golds which went to China should have gone to US gymnasts Jonathan Horton and Nastia Riukin who performed much better,” he said.
By the time Cameron Menzies finally left the arena on Monday, the blood gushing from the gash on his right hand had trickled down his wrist, part of his forearm and — somehow — up to his face. Smeared in crimson and regret, and already mouthing sheepish apologies to the crowd, he disappeared down the steps, pursued by a stern-looking Matt Porter, the chief executive of Professional Darts Corp (PDC). The physical scars from Menzies’ encounter with the Alexandra Palace drinks table after his 3-2 defeat against Charlie Manby at the Darts World Championship would be gone within a few weeks.
Manchester United on Monday blew the lead three times to miss out on moving up to fifth in the Premier League as AFC Bournemouth would not be beaten in a thrilling 4-4 draw at Old Trafford. United have lost just once in their past 10 games, but Ruben Amorim would be frustrated as more points at home were frittered away despite arguably the best attacking display of his reign in charge. Amad Diallo and Casemiro gave the hosts a halftime lead either side of Antoine Semenyo’s equalizer. Two Bournemouth goals from Evanilson and Marcus Tavernier in seven minutes at the start of the
LOW-GOAL SHOOT-OUT: Of the nine penalties in the shoot-out, only three went in, with Flamengo’s Samuel Lino, and Vitinha and Nuno Mendes of PSG netting Matvei Safonov on Wednesday made four straight penalty saves in a penalty shoot-out to help Paris Saint-Germain beat Flamengo in the Intercontinental Cup final and win a sixth trophy of the year. The Russian goalkeeper was thrown in the air by his teammates after his exploits in the shoot-out, which was won 2-1 by PSG after a 1-1 draw after extra-time. It completed a trophy-laden 12 months for the French team, who had already won the Trophee des Champions, Ligue 1, the Coupe de France, the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Super Cup — also on penalties against Tottenham Hotspur in
Italian Luca de Aliprandini described Saturday’s World Cup giant slalom at Val d’Isere as the hardest race of his life, coming two days after his Swiss partner Michelle Gisin suffered a heavy fall in training which required neck surgery. De Aliprandini finished 26th in the men’s event won by Loic Meillard, but the result paled into insignificance with two-time Olympic ski champion Gisin in hospital with injuries to her wrist, knee and cervical spine (neck). “It was Michelle’s wish that I race here. I couldn’t say no to her, but it was the toughest race of my entire life,” an emotional De
RSS