Sun Yingjie's athletic career might not be successful as Chen's. She won the Beijing International Marathon from 2003-05. But she never made the podium at the Olympics and her best performance at the World Championship was a bronze medal.

It doesn't keep her from running one of the leading running clubs in the country though. Established by Sun and her husband Wang Chengrong, also a retried long-distance runner, in Beijing in 2014, the club now has eight branches nationwide with more than 5,000 members in total.

It came as no surprise as the number of marathon races skyrocketed in the past few years, jumping from 12 in 2010 to 134 in 2015.

"I was an athlete for so many years and didn't suffer from severe injuries. I have expertise in how to keep fit while running a lot. My husband was also an athlete and coach, which helps us win the trust from the amateur runners," said Sun.

"But it is also our weakness in a way. We spent most of the time training and are not very sociable. It is a great challenge for us to do startups," said Sun.

For many years, under the State-run sports system, the athletes were dedicated to training from their early years and received limited academic education.

As a result, for those whose success isn't good enough to win a job arranged by the government, it could be quite hard sometimes to be employed after retirement.

For example, weightlifter Zou Chunlan, despite breaking the national record in 1990, became a kitchen staff member at the Jilin provincial training base after she retried in 1993. She then worked at a local public bathhouse, giving female customers rubdowns, after leaving the training base in 2000.

In another case, Ai Dongmei, winner of the Beijing International Marathon in 1999, announced the sale of dozens of her medals in 2007 when she was unemployed after retirement.

Tan, the sports sociologist, believed the expanding sports industry will help more retired athletes secure a decent job and, hopefully, change the nation's sports system in the long run.

"With more clubs established by retired athletes, more kids will receive training in the sports clubs rather than the government-run system, just like the US," said Tan.

"On one hand, the children will have a more balanced life between study and sports, which is responsible for their future. On the other hand, only the larger pool of talent can sustain a nation's good performance at the Olympics."

Contact the writer at tangyue@chinadaily.com.cn