Li Na, the first Asian female player, dethrones Francesca Schiavone at the French Open 2011. While I was watching the highlights of the final, I amazed at the strength, confidence and determination both players, respectively at the age of 29 and 30, exhibited during the play. The smooth and witty movement of Li in the game is definitely amazing and marvelous, while Schiavone had a strong come back during the second set of the play. A great match, I would say, watching how both players fought back with different tactics on the clay.
Just read a piece of their interviews before the play, Li said, 'You have to use your head, every day. Every player is different but for sure on the clay you can't use just the power. It's a mix of everything. You have to be good physically, mentally and tactically. You can't play just power because you have always the time to defend and to counterattack. It's a good mix to keep going, to use the mind, the heart, the body, everything that you are.'
I would call it a breakthrough of Li Na's championship in Chinese sports development within the white-dominated tennis playing. In these recent years, it is not hard to observe there are some real good Chinese sports players gaining acclaimed results in international competitions. Li Na is the one, also Liu Xiang.
These encouraging results only draw me back to one question, 'how about Hong Kong's sports development?' There was once a heated discussion and passion on the outstanding performance in the East Asian Games 2009 against Japan. Subsequently, the government claimed to support the non-mainstream local sports development. After a year and a half, what is the progress? Yes, the government promised to invest ten million dollars in promoting football and building sports facilities.
Wait. Is money all we need in promoting sports development, that just mere promotion and construction can help to foster sports? It takes good coaching, time and culture to truly push forward sports development in Hong Kong. Back to the education system, while everyone is stressing on academics, who else cares about the sports development? Even young kids are digging their heads in books. Fencing? Footballs? Basketballs? It's not just about the players, but the culture and atmosphere around that matter in nurturing the development. Besides, what about the protection of retired football players? It is not uncommon to see many retired game players are not financially supported after their sports career. Recently, a football player even committed suicide few years after his sports playing because of financial problems. Simply, sports players are not well supported or financed. In face of the limited prospects, the sports development will only be confined in a deadlock, no matter how much you spent on it without changing the whole system.
After Li Na and Liu Xiang, perhaps Hong Kong could aim herself higher and ask the question, 'how can we truly facilitate sports and culture in Hong Kong?'
No comments:
Post a Comment