TY - JOUR
T1 - The development of elite cycling in China
T2 - 1992-2012
AU - ZHENG, Jinming
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Copyright:
Copyright 2016 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2016/3/23
Y1 - 2016/3/23
N2 - By analyzing China’s approaches to elite cycling, this paper seeks to answer the question why the bicycle kingdom failed to produce any Olympic cycling champions. Many factors could explain China’s lack of medal success on the international stage, ranging from the limited degree of organizational specialization, problems regarding the quantity and quality of domestic coaches, to the lack of influence in the international governing body and more importantly the tension between the national team and provincial teams. However, there have been a series of developments contributing to China’s notable progress in cycling in the 2000s in general and in the London Olympiad in particular, the most important of which were the recruitment of world-leading coaches and the organization of overseas training. All these culprits and positive developments are discussed, not only to explain China’s overall poor medal performance in cycling at the Olympic Games yet with some gradual progress in recent years, but also to provide a representative through which China’s approaches to many non-traditional and less-successful sports can be understood. Four semi-structured interviews were conducted, accompanied by comprehensive document analysis derived from official documents and website information of associated sports governing bodies and influential media in China.
AB - By analyzing China’s approaches to elite cycling, this paper seeks to answer the question why the bicycle kingdom failed to produce any Olympic cycling champions. Many factors could explain China’s lack of medal success on the international stage, ranging from the limited degree of organizational specialization, problems regarding the quantity and quality of domestic coaches, to the lack of influence in the international governing body and more importantly the tension between the national team and provincial teams. However, there have been a series of developments contributing to China’s notable progress in cycling in the 2000s in general and in the London Olympiad in particular, the most important of which were the recruitment of world-leading coaches and the organization of overseas training. All these culprits and positive developments are discussed, not only to explain China’s overall poor medal performance in cycling at the Olympic Games yet with some gradual progress in recent years, but also to provide a representative through which China’s approaches to many non-traditional and less-successful sports can be understood. Four semi-structured interviews were conducted, accompanied by comprehensive document analysis derived from official documents and website information of associated sports governing bodies and influential media in China.
KW - China
KW - Elite cycling
KW - Poor performance
KW - Recent progress
KW - Sport policy
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84964005655&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/09523367.2016.1167684
DO - 10.1080/09523367.2016.1167684
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:84964005655
SN - 0952-3367
VL - 33
SP - 586
EP - 606
JO - International Journal of the History of Sport
JF - International Journal of the History of Sport
IS - 5
ER -