Hello Mario, There is no question that it is finally and always the individual athlete or team that competes.
By entirely, what I imply is that the Chinese left no stone unturned in re-creating and following the earlier Soviet system and showed that it works for a nation to produce medals - Chinas Project 119 (after the number of medals available in athletics, canoeing, sailing, rowing and swimming that were not Chinese strengths) although at tremendous cost. So what China did was put in place a sytem where the atheletes perfomed individually needless to say, but there was no going around the system. A couple of examples below from diving should make my use of the term more reasonable in its usage. >From the Japan Times, Sun, Aug 31, Barbara Demrick, Beijing, LA Times: "Chen Ruolin, a 15 year-old diver was ordered top skip dinner for one year to keep her body as sharp as a razor (almost literally from an aerodynamic/ergonomic perspective) slicing into the water. The girl weighs 30 kgs." Gou Jingling has sacrificed her eyesigh as have 26 out of 184 diver (a study by Li Fenglian, the doctor for the Chinese National diving team). In other cases the transition into pubert for girls gets affected. They start at six when they have no faer of the diving from heights, but pay a price. The state is the supreme entity and the individual role is to support the state. The diving coach Zhou Jihong said to a Chinese newspaper, "It's too dangerous," speaking of the diet that kept his star diver at 30 kgs. "She has superhuman willpower." This is where and only here and in similar cases may one consider your point about me reconsiderinng the word "entirely", Its athletes like Chen Ruolin who function entirely with th esyatem but bring a monastic, and rigorous individuality to their sport -- leading in turn to bringing accolades to their country. It is here that the state is entirely in control of ones existence. This of course will change with money and success. As usual I applaud you for making me say things in a more specific manner. Thanks. venantius Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2008 16:58:30 +0900 From: "Venantius Pinto" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Chinese victories on the other hand are entirely the effort of a state system. > Mario observes: > Venantius, you might want to reconsider the word "entirely". > Regardless of how much assistance the state provides in terms of facilities, coaching and money, it is finally the individual who has to compete, and they are subject to normal human frailties, physical and psychological, just like anyone else. >