Chinese Olympic medalists prepare for future careers

Dan Zhu said she likes how the United States looks to her so far.

Having stepped down from her familiar rhythmic gymnastics field for almost two years, the 22-year-old former Chinese national athlete said she enjoys being one of more than 40,000 IU students.

With the glory of her silver-medal journey in the 2008 Beijing Olympics embedded into history, Zhu said she is more interested in what’s coming next in her career.

Zhu is one of four athletes visiting IU as a participant in the new Beijing Sport University Champion Class Program, a high-ranking education and career preparatory hub for retired Chinese national athletes.

The program is part of the 21-year partnership between the Beijing Sport University and the School of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation.

This is the first time students from the Chinese university have come to the U.S.

The athletes will study one year of individualized programs within HPER, including classes in sports management and marketing, athletic training, dance, martial arts and English.

Three of the four athletes have arrived, but the fourth, rhythmic gymnast Tao Chou, will arrive later in the month.

“The school is very excited to have the Olympic athletes to join us,” said Jennifer Pearl, HPER’s Global and Community Health Program manager.

“The Champion Class Program is the first time that HPER has invited Chinese former athletes to IU and helped them prepare for their future careers.”

Unlike many people at her age, Zhu did not have many opportunities to experience school life. She invested most of her childhood in training and competitions.

Though she was a registered student at a Chinese university from 1997 to 2002, she was still active in the gym and had few chances to relax.

“Basically, we are living on the go. Not like here,” Zhu said. “Chinese athletes live with the team. We go out to compete, travel to different countries. But really, that’s it. We didn’t have a lot of time to slow down and look around.”

The gymnast retired following the 2008 Olympics. But Zhu said the athletic atmosphere on campus has awoken her motivation to practice athletics again.

“I haven’t been doing training for a long time,” she said. “Here it makes me want to get moving again.”

Zhong Chen, a 28-year-old two-time Taekwondo Olympic gold medalist who is well-known in China, said her merits earned at the international level and
Olympic level competitions only speak for her past.

What Chen really focuses on now, she said, is her commitment to the future.

Unlike Zhu, whose expertise in rhythmic gymnastics does not have a large venue at IU, Chen is bringing her experience to the  IU Taekwondo Club.

Chen started practicing professional Taekwondo in 1995 but retired last year. She won two Olympic medals, one in 2000 in Sydney and one in 2004 in Athens, Greece.

Chen said she hopes this program will give her an opportunity to learn things she did not get the chance to learn as an athlete.

“Our life as athletes were very simple,” Chen said. “Go to training, go to the games, eat and recover. Everything was arranged and put in order for us. We didn’t know much outside our circle.”

Chen said she enjoys the life of putting textbooks into her backpack, getting on the bus and figuring out the world that is new to her.

“It’s interesting that sometimes we forget to pull the ring to stop the bus,” Chen said. “It just keeps going, so we have missed our stops several times when we first came here.”

Zhu said she is also able to develop hobbies without concern.

“I also love to eat,” Zhu said. “Every girl loves to. I couldn’t because we have to control our weights as athletes. Now I don’t have to feel guilty.”

Chen, who is married and a mother, said she wants to go into the educational field in China. She said she hopes more educational programs, such as Champion Class, will be provided for athletes in the future.

“Our careers as athletes are short,” Chen said. “We started at very young ages to devote ourselves into training, day after day, year after year. As we are getting older, we start to think, ‘What we should do and what we can do when we retire?’ I think opportunities like this give us tools that we can use to make contributions to the society in different ways.”