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'Chinese idols' not proper coxswains
(China Daily)
Updated: 2006-10-16 11:34
Krzysztof Korzeniowski, head coach of the US national men's rowing team has warned China to be cautious in its plan to pick up coxswains for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games through a nation-wide competition in the form of a reality show.
The unusual pressure during the Olympics might to be too much for the chosen coxswains to handle, in particular knowing that they only have less than two years to train for the Games after winning the competition.
"It's a very interesting and funny idea but it is also an extremely risky idea," said Korzeniowski, who used to coach the Chinese national team in 1993 and guided the Chinese to win two golds and one silver in the World Championships that year.
"You are going to take someone from the streets and someone may have never been in a boat. There is a lot for them to cover in two years," he said.
In the hope of hyping up enthusiasm for the Olympics and boosting bigger participation in rowing in the country, China Central Television Station (CCTV) launched a programme last month to search for coxswains for national men's and women's eight crews at the 2008 Games.
Like in the popular reality show the American Idol, a combination of public voting via cell phones and professional judging will make a short list of 16 from potentially hundreds of thousands of entries and then pick two winners to become team coxswains.
The Chinese Olympic Committee has given a nod to the competition. Anyone between 16-60 can enter as long as they are healthy and a Chinese citizen.
The programme seems feasible because coxswain is believed to be the least demanding position on the boat.
It is relatively easy to train a greenhand with an allowable weight into a qualified coxswain in a short time.
But Korzeniowski said much more training is needed to compete in a pinnacle-class event like the Olympic Games.
"Olympics bring a lot of pressure and you only have one shot in every four years."
The coaching guru said even the experienced fell to the pressure, recalling that a nervous coxswain cost his team an Olympic gold medal when he played for the Poland national team.
"The Beijing Games is once-in-a-life-time chance for Chinese athletes," he said. "If I am a rower, I will never let a coxswain like that in my boat during the Olympics."
Korzeniowski was invited by Nike to launch the seventh "Hall of Coaches", a series of training clinics for Chinese sports national teams given by world famous athletes and coaches.
"It's good to see some old faces and have something in common," he said on Thursday after the three-day clinic.
The former hero behind China's rowing success said he discovered huge progress with the team.
"The changes are unbelievable," he said. "They are much more open and they prove themselves this year and I believe China is preparing to surprise the world in 2008."
Korzeniowski missed a chance to coach the Chinese team again after the 2004 Athens Games due to family responsibilities but he recommended his friend Igor Grinko.
In August, Grinko headed China to win a record three gold medals in the World Championships in Eton, England.
Korzeniowski is proud of what he did with the Chinese team.
"If I write a book one day, my experience 13 years ago will be a special chapter."
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