Saturday 22 July 2017

Meet the 7-year-old boy with eight-pack abs


A seven-year-old boy with an incredible ripped torso has shocked the Chinese Internet - and put the spotlight on China's desperate attempt to catch up with Britain at the Olympics. Chen Yi, a young gymnast from the eastern city of Hangzhou, became a Chinese web sensation earlier this week when images of his abs went viral. The boy gained national fame after dominating a recent gymnastics tournament, winning six gold medals and a silver. Zhang Hongyu, his mother, said her son had athletic ability from a very early age, and could perform one-handed pull-ups on a horizontal bar when he was just two. "He started walking when he was just 11-months old, and he learned to ride a bicycle before kindergarten," she told local media.



After Chen had developed his athletic talents, at aged five he began attending a state school which specialises in gymnastics training and also a privately run gym which caters for children. Scores of private gyms geared towards young athletes have emerged in China since authorities began to recognise that cracks had appeared in the country's Soviet-style sports system about five years ago.
The old system saw China nurture its athletes by channeling huge resources on a select group of children from an early age, often solely on the basis that their parents were proficient in that specific sport. But the emergence of the likes of Britain as an Olympic powerhouse saw Beijing change track, and authorities now seek to develop future stars by stimulating popular appeal within sports.
A report in the Yangtze Evening News said parents often enroll their children with child gyms or personal trainers who specialise in toddlers because they worry their offspring are too thin or becoming obese. But Chen's coach, Zhao Xueqiang – who specialises in training toddlers at the Hangzhou Street Show Parkour Club - said potential success in competition also motivated parents.
"Of course, Chen's gold medals are appealing for other parents to join our private gym," he said

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