Mass Selection for the National Team

Dong Aili won’t miss the chance to realize one of her greatest dreams. In 2008, she bested 200 other candidates to become a new member of the Jiujiang Women’s Team.

 It didn’t take long for Dong to meld with the team after she found that most of the members were fishers or farmers before they became professional rowers. And she didn’t expect that she, at 34, would be the youngest of the 24 team members. The average age on the team is 43, and the oldest member is 50.

That team has been victorious in eight international competitions out of nine since 2007, held in China’s Jiangsu Province, Malaysia, Indonesia, and other places. Even the team’s lone failure, a second-place finish at a 2008 competition in Indonesia, was not without controversy. Generally, for international dragon boat competitions water is at least three meters deep, but at that competition it was just over one meter, and the average weight of Indonesian team members was 15 kilos lighter than the Chinese rowers.

Dong Aili and her teammates prevailed during selective trials for the national team on February 18, 2009. “We’ve been working hard to win the selection,” she asserts. “We spent most of our time training regardless of the weather, and on that boat we worked together with the strength of men.”

After the selective trials finished in April 2010, the finals were scheduled for five months later, with three remaining candidate teams in both men and women’s divisions, including Dong’s team.

“The national team won’t be finalized until September,” remarks Zou. “Unlike most other competitive events, dragon boat racing requires more joint, coordinated efforts. It takes some time to optimize the best athletes and combine them in to one.” 

Arrival of New Events

Along with the dragon boat, several other new events have been added to the Guangzhou Asian Games, such as sports dancing, skateboarding, cricket, the game of Go, and Chinese chess.

“Games like sports dancing and skateboarding have gained recent popularity among the general public,” remarks Deputy Director Xu. “So we’ve made them official events at the Games. Others, such as dragon boat, Go, and Chinese chess, are traditional Chinese competitions. Dragon boat racing and Chinese chess are especially popular in the southern regions, so they are ideal representations of local flavor for the Games. Cricket has been added to highlight South Asia’s multiculturalism at this grand, international event.”

According to IOC president Jacques Rogge, the Guangzhou Asian Games will be an important milestone in the development of the world Olympic movement. Its 42 events eclipse total competitions of any previous Asian Games, and many unique games showcase Asian culture. The president believes that the Games will play an important role in preserving traditional Asian culture and as a platform for sponsoring great cultural exchanges.

New events also provide greater opportunities for female athletes. Women will compete for the first time in games such as kabaddi, water polo, cricket, skateboarding, dragon boat racing, Go, Chinese chess, and boxing. Women’s boxing has been one of the most anticipated events after it was formally enlisted in January 2010 by the Olympic Council of Asia and the GAGOC.