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MARKSMAN Xu Haifeng became Chinas first ever Olympic gold medalist in Los Angeles in 1984, and over the years, China has won 112 additional gold medals at the summer Games. Ever since Liu Changchun became the first Chinese athlete to participate in the Games, also in Los Angeles, in 1932, China's Olympic sportsmen have been national heroes, acclaimed as much for their athletic prowess as for their role as ambassadors. But while athletes are the natural focus of public attention, their coaches are also stepping into the limelight, with unprecedented world attention being given to the countrys sports establishment. Having guided their athletes to breakthroughs in many events which would previously have been unpromising for Chinese athletes and teams, they are today recognized as Chinas top coaches, and the driving force behind Chinas quest for gold at the 2008 Beijing Games.

The “Cold-hearted”Yuan Weimin

Sixty-nine-year-old Yuan Weimin was the head coach of the National Womens Volleyball Team between 1976 and 1984. In 1981, his team won the Womens Volleyball World Cup, which was Chinas first world championship in a team competition. Over the next few years, the team won the championship twice in a row, and earned China its first Olympic gold medal in that event.

Yuan Weimin was born in Suzhou – a city noted for its mild weather. But the docile climate of his hometown does not seem to have rubbed off on him. Almost every team member regards him as the “cold-hearted” coach. One of the players recalled that in order to help the team members overcome their fear of spiked balls, Yuan ordered his assistants to stand on a platform and pummel balls at them with all their might. Even the sight of the players turning black and blue did not dissuade him. Harsh treatment, one might say, but then again, the players no longer feared spikes.

Yuans assistant still remembers how the teams top players would always train until midnight, and how bitterly they would complain. Some of the girls periodically sought revenge by playing practical jokes on him during practice, but Yuan Weimin was not someone to be trifled with.

Still, despite his severity, Yuan understood the feelings of his players well, and knew instinctively what was best for them. During the Los Angeles Olympic Games, the media focus led one of his best players to think a little too highly of herself, which led to distraction and a poor showing. Knowing the players character, Yuan corrected her with a few choice words. The player wept openly, but at the same time was inspired to fight, and ended up contributing a great deal to the teams success.

In the early 1980s, China began carrying out its reform policies, which encouraged people to step out into the broader world. The success of the womens volleyball team is now considered to be one of the first achievements of that time, and its influence extended far beyond sports: “Womens volleyball spirit” became a widely emulated notion, and the team set an example for all.

Following the Los Angeles Games, Yuan became a sports official. In April 2000, he was appointed director general of the General Administration of Sport, making him the first official in that position with a coaching background. Yuan Weimin left his post in December 2004.

The “Wise” Sun Haiping

As a representative of Chinas younger generation of coaches, Sun Haiping has trained “Chinas flying man” Liu Xiang for a decade, since Liu was 15. Liu Xiang, who won the gold medal in the mens 110-meter hurdles at the 2004 Athens Olympics, was the first Asian to win in that event. Two years later, Liu broke the worlds record by 12.88, and won the championship again in 2007 at the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) World Championships in Athletics. Liu is generally acclaimed as a hurdle prodigy, and his coach, Sun Haiping has been more of an educator than a trainer. Keen on researching athletic techniques, he has nurtured Lius talent with his extensive athletic knowledge.

Before Liu made his mark, Sun videotaped foreign players training during every international match, and studied the videos carefully. Within a few years, he had accumulated several drawers full of videotapes. His English is also excellent, and he enjoys reading and translating articles in foreign professional periodicals.

In 1999, Sun pursued further study of hurdle sports theory at Indiana State University in the United States. By researching assiduously, Sun discovered a way for Liu Xiang to beat his Western rivals – hurdle rhythm. Guided by Suns training, Liu Xiang, who has the God-given gift of a natural running rhythm, has become the best hurdler in the mens 110-meter competition. Because of his advantage, Liu is able to defeat more powerful opponents despite his relatively inferior physique. That is how he broke the world record in the mens 110-meter hurdles in 2006, a record that had stood for 13 years.

Suns wisdom also shapes his daily training routine. Surprisingly, Liu Xiang is not all that hard-working when it comes to daily exercise – no more than three hours each day. In Sun Haipings opinion, the key to encouraging a top player to challenge himself is to train in a happy frame of mind. Only if he enjoys the sport can he achieve anything significant. Consequently, Sun swears by his theory of “happy training.”

In March 2008, Liu Xiang took the prize in the mens 60-meter hurdles at the World Indoor Championships, demonstrating his supremacy yet again. This most valued of Chinese athletes is expected to participate in the Beijing Olympics and fully defend his championship title, under Sun Haipings guidance, naturally.

The “Invincible” Cai Zhenhua

Cai Zhenhua, the “invincible coach,” was the Chinese Mens Table Tennis Team trainer, and later head coach from 1989 to 2004. Under his leadership, the team walked away with every gold medal for table tennis at both the 1996 and the 2000 Olympic Games. It was a unique achievement among Chinese teams.

In fact, it was Cai who led the team from frustration to victory. The national team was at a low ebb in 1989, having lost at the World Table Tennis Championships competition. Table tennis, the “Chinese national game,” was in the doldrums. At the 1991 World Table Tennis Championships, the mens team ranked seventh, and the womens team was defeated by a unified Korean team, the first time in 16 years that it had lost. Their poor performances were severely criticized at home.

As Cai recalled, the Chinese teams repeated losses to European players drove most top players to lose their self-assurance. However, within six months of taking over as head coach, Cais team triumphed over the powerful European teams, seizing the team title at the World Cup Competition and restoring the players drive.

The 1993 World Table Tennis Championships was held in Tianjin, China. Under Cais leadership the mens team not only regained the team title after four years, but also secured all of the individual championships, starting his so-called “invincible journey.” Over a decade, the national team swept up every Olympic gold medal, as well as all seven titles at the2001 World Table Tennis Championships.

But Cai paid a heavy price for his string of successes. On the eve of the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, Cais waist injury worsened from overwork, and he had to undergo surgery. Although the doctor exhorted him to convalesce in peace, or risk being paralyzed for life, Cai insisted on going to the venue, guiding the team members while lying on a table in severe pain. He swore, “I would lie in my bed for the rest of my life as long as I can lead the team now.”

Following the 2004 Athens Olympics, Cai left his position as head coach and was appointed the athletic official in charge of table tennis. In April 2007, he was promoted to deputy director general of the General Administration of Sport.

The “Tenacious”Yu Fen

Most people are probably unfamiliar with the name Yu Fen, but her disciple Fu Mingxia is well known. Yu always thinks of Fu Mingxia, who first won the diving championship at the age of 12, as the “most perfect work in my life.”

After surprising the world in 1990, Fu Mingxia won gold medals at the Barcelona and Atlanta Olympic Games. In 2000, after three years in retirement, Fu Mingxia returned to participate in the Sydney Olympic Games, winning the gold medal in the Womens Diving 3-meter Springboard. She is not only Chinas leading Olympic gold medal winner, but has also appeared on the front cover of Time (Asia edition) twice.

Despite her enomous success, Fu Mingxia was not at first thought to have a bright future in diving as the result of a slightly malformed foot. In addition, she began diving at the age of nine, which is, in the discipline, a little old. However, Yu Fen ignored such obvious disadvantages and insisted on teaching Fu Mingxia herself. After training for three years, Fu Ming-xia achieved her great coup.

Yu Fens tenacity helped her discover Fus diving talent, but her strict approach also made their relationship tense. During her adolescence, Fu Mingxia grew up quickly both mentally and physically. She gained too much weight to perform well. At the same time, she was a typical rebellious teenager, and her headstrong personality led her to skip practice more than once. Unhappy with Fu Mingxias performance, Yu Fen confronted her sternly, even slapping her face. At that time, Fu Mingxias name was almost removed from the national teams roll for lack of enthusiasm.

In 1997, Fu Mingxia decided to retire, while Yu Fen chose to leave the national diving team and set up another team in Tsinghua University. Three years later, Yu helped Fu Ming- xia return to win the gold medal in Sydney. But she then ran into an unexpected problem: owing to a new regulation, many players of Tsinghua University left the team to represent their provincial teams in order to gain more competition opportunities. Yu Fen could do nothing but bring suit against those players who were in breach of their contracts. In the end, many of the team members returned to the university team.

With the Beijing Olympic Games approaching, Yu Fen, ever the tenacious coach, announced in January 2008 that she would be applying to return to the national team. According to Yu, a number of the leading players on the current national team are from the Tsinghua University Team. Being familiar with their characters and potential, Yu believed she would be able to improve their skills and competitiveness for the Beijing Olympic Games.

The “Smiling”Chen Zhonghe

As head coach of the Chinese Womens Volleyball Team, Chen Zhonghe led the team to the championship at the 2003 Womens Volleyball World Cup. In 2004, the team won gold at the Athens Olympics, which was the only gold medal in a team event for China that year.

Regardless of whether the team is winning or losing, though, Chen is always smiling. During the final game at the Athens Olympics, although the Chinese team lost the first two sets, Chen was smiling as usual, in stark contrast to the “growling” Russian head coach. The Chinese team finally won the game. Following the match, Chens smile was dubbed the “Mona Lisa Smile” by the media.

The sweet-tempered Chen admitted frankly that he was far gentler than his teacher, Yuan Weimin. In 1979, the 21-year-old Chen Zhonghe joined Yuans team as a training partner coach. With his physical advantage, Chen imitated the powerful spikes used by the worlds top players to train the female team.

His smile has become widely known since he stepped in as the teams head coach in 2001. When asked why he was always smiling on the field, he said he believed it was hard for team members to grasp his intentions if all he did was yell. His goal, he said, was “to inspire players to try their best using only the wink of an eye or a word.”

However, Chens life has been full of sadness, too. In 1992, as he was preparing for the Barcelona Olympics as assistant coach, his wife died in a car accident. Four years later, shortly before the opening of the Atlanta Olympics, his mother fell critically ill. And in 2004, at a crucial moment during the preparations for the Athens Olympics, one of his leading players broke her right leg. When he visited her, Chen is said to have wept with grief.

Currently, Chen is encouraging the team to make every effort to retain the Olympic championship. The leading player has recovered and has also rejoined the team. Reacting to the fervent expectations often made of him, the coach once said after winning the world championship in 2003, “Please dont judge me as a failure when I lose, nor a man who is good at everything when I succeed.”

The “Legendary” Ma Junren

In 1996 at the Atlanta Olympics, Wang Junxia won gold in the womens 5,000-meter race, and silver in the womens 10,000-meter event. She is the first Chinese Olympic champion in long-distance running. In August 1993 at the Stuttgart IAAF World Championships in Athletics, Wang and her teammates Qu Yunxia and Liu Dong, respectively, won the gold medals in the womens 10,000-meter, 3,000-meter and 1,500-meter runs, achieving Chinas “breakthrough” in the world championship for middle- and long-distance running.

Their coach, Ma Junren, was at the time leading the Liaoning Womens Middle- and Long-Distance Running Team. In September of the same year, at the 7th National Games, Mas team successively broke the world records for the womens 1,500-meter, 3,000-meter and 10,000-meter events, which was called a “miracle in the world of track and field” by foreign news agencies.

The “miracle-maker” Ma Junren is a legend. He was initially a physical education teacher at a high school in Liao- ning Province, and later became an amateur track coach. In 1986, four of his students swept all four top places in the World High School Students 3,000-meter Cross-country Race. Two years later, he became the professional coach of the Liaoning Womens Middle- and Long-Distance Running Team, leading his team members to three world records.

Ma is unique in his training method. He studied bionics intensively and optimized the athletes action by imitating animals running postures. For instance, he took his members to observe the running of sika deer, ostriches and horses to discover a running posture that is both fast and labor-saving.

In addition, Ma has a thorough understanding of acupuncture, massage and traditional Chinese medicine. He cooked nourishing foods and prepared tonics to provide athletes with the energy they needed to endure the rigorous training, and to recoup their strength quickly. After achieving fame in 1993, Ma was invited to be an image representative for a health food enterprise.

He quit coaching in November 1996, and took up raising pedigree dogs instead. Currently, he is president of the China Tibetan Mastiff Club and owns over 100 Tibetan mastiffs. He now has set himself the goal of breeding Chinas best Tibetan mastiffs and to dominate the “World Dog Championships.”

Ma has a thorough understanding of acupuncture, massage and traditional Chinese medicine. He cooked nourishing foods and prepared tonics to provide athletes with the energy they needed to endure the rigorous training, and to recoup their strength quickly.