Satisfaction

    “I fell in love with rhythmic gymnastics when I saw the older girls wearing beautiful clothes and dancing so gracefully with ribbons and balls,” enthuses Rourou. In reality, the training was far from what she had anticipated. “It’s truly brutal and exhausting,” she admits. Many times Rourou wanted to quit in a pique, but she knuckled down to it, persuaded and comforted by her parents.

    What changed Rourou’s attitude towards rhythmic gymnastics was her first game. It was an amateur rhythmic gymnastics competition held in Hebei Province. Altogether five teams took part and Rourou’s team, by virtue of its experienced members, won first place in the team event. “Once I won first place, I wanted to win it all the time. The feeling of being No.1 is so good,” Rourou said excitedly. According to Nana, Rourou is showing great promise as a rhythmic gymnast in terms of her body proportion, appearance, temperament, muscle quality and coordination. It’s Rourou’s tendency to be headstrong that troubles Nana. The little girl is from a wealthier family and has been spoiled. She often cuts corners during training, and sometimes when she can’t bear it anymore she just sits on the ground and cries.

    In contrast, Paopao’s superior physical condition gives her greater endurance than Rourou. “I remember when Paopao first arrived to train, her muscles and joints were not pliable enough; she couldn’t even touch her toes. But after months of training, she could touch her heels bending backwards. When she found she couldn’t keep up with others, she voluntarily put in more hours of practice. The girl is under great pressure,” comments Nana, and it’s clear she likes Paopao very much. Paopao’s parents earn RMB 2,500 per month. To come up with the training tuition of nearly RMB 30,000, they had turned to almost all of their kin and friends.

    “Rhythmic gymnastics practice is a trial for not only children, but also their parents. I advise parents not to watch their children training, because it is so hard that the parents might want to withdraw them,” says Nana. “Parents would feel conflicted, of two minds. They care a lot for their children, but sometimes they have to seem hard-hearted in the interests of a better future for them,” adds Nana.

    As a professional coach, Nana has also undergone exactly the same course. Sent to Beijing at nine and half years of age, she returned home only three times in 13 years. “When I was 12 my parents came to Beijing to see me for the first time. On the day they left, I leaned against the door and gazed at their receding figures. As they rounded the corner, my father turned to look at me. I saw he was weeping,” recalls Nana. “That was the first time ever I saw him cry.”

    Making the Cut

    It takes more than a decade to produce an outstanding rhythmic gymnast. Generally speaking, girls need to begin training at four or five years of age. They can compete in national games when they turn 10, and in international games at 15. Retirement age is around 20.

    “Competitive sport is cruel. You will be out the minute you can’t meet the requirements,” says Nana. “From my first day of training to my retirement, I witnessed teammates being left behind, one by one. The selective mechanism is very strict. From thousands of amateurs, only the best are chosen to join professional teams; after that they have to undergo various kinds of tests. These select few compete again to join the national reserve team and finally, the national team. It is possible that any one of us may fail to make the cut in terms of physical fitness, performance during training, or even personal problems,” Nana elaborates.

    Not every retired rhythmic gymnast is qualified to be a coach, and many are working in fields that have nothing to do with their sporting obsession. Nana retired from the national team two years ago. Her performance in the World Championships and Asian Games brought her money and fame. Opening a rhythmic gymnastics training club in Beijing was her post-retirement project, and numerous parents patronize it, making Nana’s business well worthwhile. The coach rounds out her already colorful life by appearing in modern dramas and advertisements.

    Paopao wants to follow in her coach’s footsteps and become a world champion one day. Rourou just thinks rhythmic gymnastics is a thing of beauty.

    “No matter whether you win or lose the game, nobody can take from you what you have gained from training, and in any case, not everybody is priviledged enough to experience losses of this kind,” Nana philosophizes. “Finally I understood the words of my own coach – the moment on the winner’s platform is far less real than what the rigor of daily training has made of us.”