Dominant China blow away competition once again

BEIJING // Having topped the medals table at last month's Olympic Games, China delivered an even more emphatic triumph for the hosts' disabled athletes at the Paralympics. Already the Paralympic superpower after winning most golds and most medals in Athens in 2004, they blew away the other nations here, winning 89 golds and 211 medals - double the totals of second-placed Britain on both counts.

Of course China always have the weight of numbers, there are 83 million registered disabled people in the world's most populous country: but delivering elite athletes from that pool is another matter. China's Disabled Persons' Federation (CDPF) used the model of the ruthlessly efficient state sports system, which is organised on a pyramid of city-provincial-national team, to select the 322 athletes who excelled at the Games.

Chaired by Deng Pufang, the wheelchair-bound son of late reformist leader Deng Xiaoping, the CDPF have also had the financial backing to form a winning team. Since winning the right to host the Paralympics in 2001, China have been investing 100 million yuan (Dh53m) each year in the sports system for the disabled through lottery funds. The world's biggest sports facility built for Paralympians was established in suburban Beijing last year and 18 other training bases have been launched throughout the country.

Yuan Yanping, a judo champion in Beijing, was discovered during a morale-boosting visit to her university by district CDPF officials after she lost her sight in 2004. A common concern with able-bodied athletes is what happens after they have won glory for their country and the same is true for the Paralympians. Unlike the 23,000 elite athletes in the able-bodied system, China's Paralympians are all amateurs with no financial support from the government.

"When they join our training teams, it does not mean they are employed to be professionals," Jia Yong, an official with the Chinese Paralympic delegation. "They are government workers, peasants, businessmen, or unemployed persons et cetera." * Reuters