Sports stars want new schools to combine academics, athletics_美文

Sports stars want new schools to combine academics, athletics

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Citing the importance of education, sports celebrities in China are trying to reshape the traditional State-run sports cultivating system by establishing their own schools.

After fully investing their early years in the country's State-run system, in which athletes train full time without receiving an education, many sports stars, like tennis champion Li Na and hoops icon Yao Ming, returned to college. They have sought to make up those missed lessons to help them achieve a smooth transition to new roles in society.

Thus, building schools featuring a combination of academic and physical education has become a new off-court goal for Li and Yao.

"It's always been my dream (to establish a tennis academy) after retirement, and I hope children who specialize in tennis training could also learn academic courses as other students do in ordinary schools," Li told China Daily at the celebration of her Australian Open victory and new book launch on Saturday.

Li, who just ascended to a career-high world No 2 ranking following her successful Australian Open campaign, said she has had discussions with some potential partners about the academy project. However, she said, agreements have not been reached yet because of a "vast gap between ideal and reality".

After Li's Australian Open final, her agent, Max Eisenbud, tennis vice-president of International Management Group, told the media that IMG will look for a real estate company as Li's new sponsor to support her school ideas.