AT WHAT COST?
Former Newsweek reporter Brook Larmer, in his book Operation Yao Ming, claims that athletes are being “encouraged” to marry and have children by the Chinese government — including the parents of Yao Ming. Children are assessed as early as possible. Detailed measurements are taken of height, weight, the proportion of limbs, etc. at academies that have earned notoriety in other countries for their perceived cruelty.
The end results are China’s rise up the Olympic medals platform, and reports of villages in northern China each with dozens of men the height of Yao Ming.
They are participants in a culture of the extreme, willing to devote more, to ache more and to risk more in order to do better. Most of us will understandably want nothing to do with the culture of the extreme but that is our choice
The west has its own history with these issues.
In his 2005 biography of Beethoven, Edmund Morris paints a sober portrait of a genius in slow, steady formation. His intensive training started early (before age 5), had dark psychological overtones.
Ludwig’s early training was ruthless and exhaustive, driven by his tyrannical father Johann who was disappointed in his own achievements. Starting at age 4 or 5, Johann made his eldest son his special project, forcing him to practice constantly. The result was a brilliant musician and a tortured soul.
Contemporary illustrations of this abound. Names like Todd Marinovich, Bobby Fisher and Brian Wilson provide their own kind of cautionary tales of what can happen in the obsessive pursuit to Understand Greatness.
