[By Peng Shijian/China.org.cn ]

Zhang Shangwu, a former champion gymnast who was seen recently begging at a metro station in Beijing, is not the first ex-Chinese athlete to suffer in retirement. Helping athletes after the finish line has once again become a social debate.

Born in 1983, Zhang made it to the Chinese national team in 1995 and won gold medals in the team and ring events at the 2001 Universiade in Beijing. Zhang retired in 2005 after rupturing his Achilles tendon. He received a one-time US$9,760 pay-off from the sports governing body. After spending most of his savings on medical treatment for his grandfather, he turned to crime to make ends meet.

Some believe Zhang's plight is just an isolated case. Zhang's former coach, Fan Hongbin, blamed his troubles on "personal reasons." But Zhang is not the first ex-athlete to suffer in retirement. Former weightlifting champion Zou Chunlan was seen giving "rubdowns" at a public bathhouse, while former marathon champion Ai Dongmei sold her 10 international competition medals after her husband lost his job. Asian Games weightlifting champion Cai Li was a gatekeeper for Liaoning Institute of Sports and Athletics Technology before he died of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome in 2003, leaving behind less than 400 yuan.

There are two reasons for the poverty of ex-athletes: the lack of education and the lack of a safeguard system for retired athletes.

Before the economic reforms of the 1980s, China's national sports academies, based on the former Soviet model, called up young athletes to provincial or national teams. They were then given jobs after they retired.

But since the late 1980s, the job assignments turned into recommendations. An anonymous official of the Jilin provincial sports bureau was quoted in a 2006 China.org.cn article as saying that less than 1 percent of athletes could stay with the programs as coaches. The rest simply went back to where they came from. With few marketable skills and little education, many found it difficult to be accepted into society.

In 2010, the State Council issued the "Suggestions on Further Improvement of Athlete Cultural Education and Safeguard." But according to China Sports Daily, there are now some 300,000 retired athletes, of which 80 percent are battling injury, poverty and unemployment.

"I feel little warmth, little recognition from others," Zhang said. "The minimum requirement for me is to keep the pot boiling, having no time to attend to dignity."

A sound insurance system against ex-athlete unemployment is needed. In China's gold-medalist production line, few become finished products, and the rest are sacrificed. Whether it is a semi-manufactured Zhang or an elite athlete standing on the top podium, they are all humans, not machines.

The author is a veteran sports journalist covering four Olympic Games. He served as China's Olympic Committee Official Website's correspondent for the 2009 Berlin Athletics World Championship, the 2010 Turkey Basketball World Championship and many other sports events.

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

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