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.
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