This is a review of the latest edition of HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel as it airs on June 24, 2008. As usual, there are four segments. As we approach the Summer Olympics in Communist China, Real Sports has three stories on Olympic sport and an update on the horse breeding story that aired last month.
Narrated by Bryant Gumbel, this story is a look inside the China sports school system where training Olympic athletes has become a way of life. Students at the Zheng Xing Lin Sports School in Hangzhou certainly believe they have what it takes to become an Olympic star. The 1,000 students who attend the school spend most of their day training in all types of Olympic sports. Bryant asked 15 year old Yen Ling, an aspiring weightlifter, says she’s in training from 2 to 5 p.m. every day. She tells Bryant that she wants to be a star and Bryant asks her if London 2012 is in her sights and she says yes. Yen Ling is one of half a million students in China’s system harboring Olympic hopes. The Zheng Xing Lin school is one of 3,000 schools across the country and they’re responsible for developing all of China’s international athletes.
Because there are no interscholastic leagues, this is the only way for Chinese athletes to get into sports. While many have called the system outdated, over the last 25 years, China has become a world power on the Olympic stage.
Terry Rhodes, an American running a sports marketing firm in China says the results are difficult to argue with. Rhodes says it’s very possible for China to harvest the most gold medals and overall medals in the 2008 Olympics for the first time in its history, something unfathomable 30 years ago.
Bryant points out that the training system in place goes back some 50 years. When Mao Zedong brought the Communists into power 50 years ago, China was weak militarily, economically and physically. So he brought in a physical fitness program. Mao also thought athletics would bring China prestige so he started the sports school system modeled after the Soviet Union. Athletes would go into servitude for the good of the state.
Rhodes says sports scouts spread out into the countryside looking for athletes to train, some as young as three years old. However, in most cases, the selection does not work out and only 1%, that’s one percent of the 400 million Chinese children are chosen by the current system. Rhodes says finding that one special athlete is like finding a needle in a haystack. Most of the students at the Zheng Xing Lin school come from the countryside and some parents find free education, room and board and possible glory for China are too good to pass up.
But under China’s One Child Policy, most parents look for other options, wanting to make sure their children are educated and get white collar jobs instead of going into the sports school system. Rhodes says 20 years ago, parents could not say no, but now, more and more parents are saying no and opting for other choices for their children.
Students do spend their mornings and evenings studying at Zheng Xing Lin, but their afternoons are focused on athletic training. The best from Zheng Xing Lin are sent to the best sports academies like the Beijing Shi Cha Hai Sports School where the elite find the training more focused and more intense.
One thing Bryant noticed is that the students at Shi Cha Hai don’t smile or look like they’re having fun. He asked the school’s principal why this is the case and she answered in educational settings, students don’t smile either. Shi Cha Hai produced four gold medalists at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. Bryant said he saw a young girl clearly fatigued and crying when she was told to continue her training. He asked if this what it was all about. The principal replied, each individual student has his or own standard and she was probably being criticized for not reaching that standard. She said some children will probably be sad that they are trying, but can’t fulfill their wishes.
Rhodes says the kids are pushed so much to the limit that they break down and feel the pain of the training that they’re doing. Rhodes says he’s amazed in the 14 years that he’s lived in China seeing the amount of punishment the athletes are willing to put up with to meet their goals.
And with many athletes trying to reach the standard to get their rewards, Bryant asked the principal just how the state would reward the athletes and she said if they set records of a certain standard, they get the pick of what school they want to attend, go to college and get financial rewards. While some have received financial rewards, only a handful of athletes have reached such heights. Many are left behind and are ill equipped to fight for themselves in the world’s biggest job market.
Yen Ling wants to become a coach when she retires. It’s the same dream that retired weightlifter Liu Chengju had. She was told there were no female weightlifting coaches, so she trained hard to reach that goal. She eventually became a national champion and as luck would have it, she married a fellow weightlifter, also a product of the national system. He was not only a national champion, but an Asian champion. They married and had a daughter, but when their careers ended, so did their good times. They fell on hard times financially and Liu because she trained so hard developed knee and back problems. Her husband suffered severe respiratory problems.
Liu believes they were a result of him training so hard. She said because of the training, his weight went up and his immune system got weak. The state would not pay any medical bills. Liu said they had to pay out of their own pockets and the state probably should have paid some. In 2003, Liu’s husband developed pneumonia after refusing to go the hospital because of the cost and died suddenly. At age 33, Liu’s husband had just $17 in the bank. Five years later, Liu raises her daughter in a crowded apartment and works for low money for the city’s water department.
Bryant asked her what she got out of giving the state her time, her body, her soul and her years for training. She would not say.
And Liu’s story is not uncommon. A recent report suggests 80% of China’s retired athletes are suffering from injury, unemployment or poverty. Liu says she sacrificed so much. The country should give her something in return.
Bryant says China has spent more money than any other country in developing athletes.
Segment grade – A
Reported by Andrea Kremer, this is a look at the elimination of softball as an Olympic sport after this year. International Softball Federation President Don Porter has hundreds of letters from young women who want to take part in the Olympics as a member of their country’s softball team. Porter says it breaks his heart because the Federation did not do enough to keep their Olympic dreams alive. Porter is trying to get the sport back in. Softball is the first sport to be eliminated from the Olympic program in 70 years.
Twelve years ago, softball made its debut at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and the women who participated were the golden girls of the games. Players like Lisa Fernandez of the USA became overnight sensations. And the game helped to develop a new generation of players like Jessica Mendoza, Monica Abbott and Jennie Finch all joined Fernandez on this year’s team. Jennie says she was waiting for Lisa’s autograph in 1996 hoping that she too would be in the Olympics.
The US won gold in 1996, 2000 and thoroughly dominated in 2004. But during that time, there were ominous signs that the sport would be dropped. In 2002, International Olympic Committee Chairman Jacques Rogge start
ed a plan to downsize the games so baseball, softball and Modern Pentathlon were all targeted for elimination. It came as a shock to International Softball Federation President Don Porter. He did manage to stave off the death sentence for a short time, but in 2005, Rogge tried again, this time targeting all sports. Each sport needed just a simple majority of the 105 IOC members to stay afloat. Porter felt he had 65 to 70 votes, but when the ballots were counted, softball was eliminated by one vote.
Jennie Finch said she was in shock. Jessica Mendoza felt it was like a death in the family. Because the vote was done by secret ballot, no one knows how someone voted or why. Rogge said softball was eliminated because of its lack of global appeal. The results bear him out, only three other countries besides the U.S. have medaled in the sport. But Porter says he’s doing all he can to raise the competitive level of the sport around the world.
And Fernandez says if it’s because of the U.S. dominance in the sport, then the Olympics should have gotten rid of men’s basketball because of the U.S. dominance by the NBA players until 2004. But she says now the world has caught up. Jessica says it takes time for the world to catch up. Twelve years is not enough to allow the world to catch up in softball.
Andrea Kremer says Real Sports contacted 30 IOC members believed to have voted against softball, but none agreed to talk. But many close observers feel softball was taken out of the games because of anti-American sentiment. Canadian IOC member Dick Pound says softball and baseball might have been eliminated because of US policies in Iraq. And Pound says many IOC members misunderstood that softball is just baseball for women. In addition, because Major League Baseball players were not participating in the Olympics and baseball’s drug policy, softball became a victim of guilt by association. Pound says while many IOC members may not know softball, it’s incumbent of the sport to have the members be familiar on what they’re voting.
So the 78 year old Porter is traveling around the world lobbying IOC members to reinstate the sport when the next vote comes up in 2009. The Federation has sent more than $2.5 million of softball equipment to 90 countries to grow the game. Jessica Mendoza has gone to South Africa, Guatemala and the Czech Republic hosting clinics to get the next generation hooked on softball. But Jessica fears that funding of which 90% comes from the Olympics will dry up and she won’t be able to travel to showcase the game she loves to other girls.
Porter says if the sport is not reinstated, it’s not a death blow, but it will be more difficult to develop facilities and to grow the game worldwide. Jessica hopes that the IOC will be watching in Beijing.
During the transition, Andrea says Porter knows he’s up against a lot of competition to get back in the Olympics. She says he probably got some false hope from committee members. And Porter is going to try to get IOC members to attend softball in Beijing to show them how the sport is played.
Here’s a synopsis of the report.
Segment grade – B+.
Reported by Jon Frankel and combined with Sports Illustrated, this story is a look at cycling, a sport that has been riddled with drugs scandal and blood doping. In 2006, Floyd Landis was stripped of his Tour de France title after he tested positive for steroids. In addition, nearly a dozen riders were exposed with other drug violations. The sponsorships have dried up, the public no longer believes in cycling and a man who put a needle in his arm to gain an unfair advantage is now sticking a needle in his arm to convince organizers that he’s now clean.
David Millar, a British cyclist, is rather blase about drawing blood because he’s done it before. But when he began his career, Millar was not only clean, but adamant about being clean. He was known as an idealist. Millar says doping was totally against his beliefs when he was an amateur.
But in his second year as a pro, it all changed. He took a blood test after winning a race and showed a teammate that his results were clean, the teammate wondered why he wasn’t doping. Without drugs, Millar became one of the best cyclists in the world. He won the opening stage of the 2000 Tour de France, defeating defending champion Lance Armstrong.
But in 2001, Millar had several injuries and suffered through his worst season. A team official and teammate sat him down to have a talk. He was told to “prepare properly” and Millar knew exactly what that meant. He knew it meant blood doping. Millar knew it was time to start doping and join the dark side. He started taking EPO, a drug that helps boost blood cells. It helps endurance riders recover faster and enhance performance.
It worked and within two weeks of using it, Millar won the first and sixth stages of the Tour de Spain. But he had no excitement because he felt the pressure to win. Millar says he used EPO only twice more, once before the 2003 World Time Trials which he won.
But the following year, Millar’s team was embroiled in a drug scandal and French police found used syringes with traces of EPO in his apartment, sitting on his bookshelf. Millar was arrested and spent 48 hours in jail. He was suspended from cycling for two years after confessing to everything. During his suspension, he drank. Didn’t touch a bike for a year.
But when he got back on, he enjoyed it and decided that it was he did best. But this time, he would come back, do it cleanly and find a team that shared his beliefs. Luckily, he found a someone who did. Jonathan Vaughters, a teammate of Lance Armstrong, saw the damage decades of drug scandals had on his sport. So in 2003, Vaughters started Slipstream, a completely drug-free team. He instituted a stringent drug-free policy, even stricter than many sports. Vaughters said he did it to show that athletes can win cleanly and don’t have to resort to doping.
And Slipstream’s policy of testing uses a new way of keeping cyclists honest. Dr. Paul Strauss has developed a way of determining changes in the blood to see if responds to any kind of doping. Dr. Strauss says the test will find new steroids as blood responds to it instead of testing for steroids. And the riders police each other and given a Blackberry so they can be tested at any time.
Vaughters says the team is going to everything to enhance performance, but do it cleanly. And he says it’s absolutely necessary because sponsors are drying up. This year, about one fourth of the teams will not have sponsors. Millar says the move to stay clean is needed because sponsors don’t have faith in the sport.
The clean approach is paying dividends for Slipstream. It’s signed a sponsor and has been invited to the Tour de France. Millar says he also wants to be known for bringing his sport back. Millar says he has a responsibilty to young riders to tell them what he went through and ensure it never happens again.
Frankel tells Bryant that Garmin and one other sponsor have come into Slipstream. But the real payoff is being on the winner’s podium. While they’re the exception than the rule, more teams, Frankel says, are looking at Slipstream.
Good segment. A+
Segment #4 – Behind the Barn Door
This is an updated sto
ry reported by Bernard Goldberg about the horse, Storm Cat, a descendant of the great champion, Secretariat and another champion, Northern Dancer. Backin the 1980’s, Storm Cat was not a champion on the track, he ran eight times and won four. We first met Storm Cat at the Overbrook Farm in Lexington, KY.
It’s at Overbrook where Storm Cat has lived up to his bloodlines. A session to produce a live foal costs $500,000 per. That’s half a million dollars per session. Rick Waldman runs Overbrook Farm, and says Storm Cat produces two foals a day, 7 days a week.
So every morning during the breeding session from February to June, he’s brought from his paddock, into a barn to mount a mare. Once that’s done, he takes a rest and does it again in the afternoon. Waldman says it takes 5 to 10 seconds for each session. During his racing career, Storm Cat made $500,000 total. Now he makes that much for Overbrook for each time he’s brought into the barn to mate.
Waldman says the real pot of gold is when a horse goes to stud and a career in stud can last 20 years while a racing career can last just one to three years. Since he’s gone to stud, Storm Cat has made Overbrook $25 million a year, making him one of the highest paid athletes in the country. Because of his less than stellar racing career, Overbrook only charged $30,000 per session, but because there were few takers, his price dropped to $20,000.
Then his first crop of foals ran well, then the next crop also ran well, and by the time he got to the 5th and 6th crops, the proof was in the pudding and the fees began to go up. Storm Cat has sired up to 1,400 foals who have earned more than $100 million in winnings.
Waldman says the real reason why the stud fee is $500,000 is because Storm Cat is a sire’s sire. His sons are also prolific studs. Because of the goods, Storm Cat just doesn’t waltz in and have sex with mares. That’s too dangerous because the mare could kick him if she’s not in the mood.
So a “teaser” is brought in. A teaser is a horse who tests the mare to see if she’s in the mood. Joe Yulcum, the head veterinarian at Overbrook uses a teaser to flirt with the mare, get her worked up, and then the real stud is brought in to finish the job. If the mare still isn’t ready, the teaser will do a test jump, but he can’t have sex with the mare and has to wear a diaper. And whlie Storm Cat gets the just desserts, the teaser is lucky according to Yulcum to have sex maybe once out of a 100 times.
When the mare is ready, she’s brought into the breeding shed, outfitted with padded shoes in case she does kick, and Storm Cat waltzes in and mounts her. Not all stallions are as efficient as Storm Cat. Some are coached, others have to be taken outside while others are cheered on. Storm Cat’s session are taped so other farms know who the father is. Overbrook has an armed guard standing over Storm Cat to make sure no shenanigans go on.
But last month, Overbrook finally decided to put Storm Cat to pasture. He wasn’t producing foals like he once was. At 25, Storm Cat is rather old for a stud and officially retired. Waldman says Storm Cat will no longer have sex with mares. In the last mating season, his success rate once at 80%, fell to just 10%.
Don’t feel sorry for Storm Cat. His 11 year old son, Giants Causeway, is carrying on the tradition at a farm just 30 minutes away and his stud fees are $300,000. Like father, like son.
Bernie played this up for humor. Yes, there were plenty of puns. Grade – B.
Final Segment – Bryant’s comments
Bryant talks about Pacman Jones shedding his nickname. Bryant advised Adam Jones that football players throughout the years have had nicknames and not to get rid of it. Citing Bronco Nagurski, Refrigerator Perry, Mean Joe Greene and Billy “White Shoes” Johnson, Bryant says the NFL could use more colorful characters. But Bryant says it’s Adam’s call.
This was one of Bryant’s weaker commentaries. Grade – C.
Overall grade – B+
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