It’s a horrible sight to see, but with the Rio Olympics coming up in 2016 these pictures are a timely reminder of the abuse some children suffer in the race to become an elite athlete.
Many of these photos are from the Nanning Gymnasium in Nanning, China, known as one of the most harsh training camps in the country. As harrowing as these pictures are, astonishingly, parents willingly send their children there to learn how to become Olympic champions.
Kids in China start training incredibly young, from around 5 or 6-years-old.
It wasn’t just leading up to Beijing 2008 that the abuse happened either, Reuters reported that it was still going on for the last Olympics held in London in 2012. “The whole-nation system is disastrous. The budding young talents are shut up in closed training schools from a young age and apart from their own events, almost have no other life skills.” Reuters quote a user on China’s microblogging site Sina Weibo.
The Chinese see their elite sport programme, part of the Communist “juguo tizhi” or “whole nation system”, as a way to boost national pride and build confidence.