Gou Zhongwen's "cross-border" life: the most restless head, the shortest-lived director of the General Administration of Sports

Look at sports in all its eyes

2024-05-30 18:25Posted in Jiangsu Sports Creators

There is no doubt that Gou Zhongwen is the most controversial head of China's sports department during his tenure. is suspected of serious violations of discipline and law, making him the first former head of the Chinese sports department to fall after the Cultural Revolution, and his six-year sports life has also added a touch of "legendary" color.

Gou Zhongwen was parachuted into the State General Administration of Sports in the autumn of 2016, and it was expected that China's sports department would usher in a new head at this juncture.

Since 1988, the former National Sports Commission and later the General Administration of Sports of China have had a practice that the timing of Yi Shuai basically appears a few months after the conclusion of the Summer Olympics. This is not difficult to understand, after all, the Summer Olympics is a big test of the Olympic cycle, and changing the handsome in the middle will bring unnecessary trouble to the preparation work. In the autumn of 2016, Liu Peng, then director of the General Administration Bureau and secretary of the party group, reached the second-line age, and Gou Zhongwen took over, after he served as deputy secretary of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee and secretary of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee Education Committee.

Unlike his predecessors such as Li Menghua, Wu Shaozu, Yuan Weimin, and Liu Peng, Gou Zhongwen did not step down after the Summer Olympics, and he did not hand over the whip until July 2022. The delay of the second line by one year is not only that he is under the age of 65 after the Tokyo Olympics, but also that the Beijing Winter Olympics are coming one after another. With less than six years in office, Gou Zhongwen has been the head of China's sports sector for the shortest time since the Cultural Revolution, which is another of his best.

Li Menghua, Wu Shaozu, and Liu Peng have served as the top leaders for more than 6 years. Although Yuan Weimin has only served as director of the bureau for four years, he has served as deputy director of the State Sports Commission and deputy director of the General Administration of Sports of the People's Republic of China for more than 10 years.

Gou Zhongwen's "sports journey" can be called "coming in a hurry, going in a hurry". came in a hurry, which means that it was somewhat unexpected for him to become Liu Peng's successor at that time, and it was also cross-border. It is understandable that going to be in a hurry is a factor of age. Gou Zhongwen has always had great controversy in the sports and press circles, and it is undeniable that he has achieved good results in competitive sports and has done many of the best.

In the summer of 2016, when Chinese sports suffered setbacks in sports events, winning only 26 gold medals at the Rio Olympics, falling to the lowest point in the history of the Olympic Games since the new century, Gou Zhongwen took office in this context.

During his five-year tenure, Gou Zhongwen has experienced three major battles: the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, and each time he won big battles.

The Chinese team won 132 gold medals in the Jakarta Asian Games, achieving ten consecutive championships in the gold medal list of the Asian Games. The Tokyo Olympics won 38 gold medals, equaling the best results in the history of an overseas Olympic Games. The performance of the Beijing Winter Olympics was even better, with the Chinese Legion unexpectedly winning nine gold medals at home, ranking among the top three in the Winter Olympics gold medal list for the first time, while the Chinese Legion only won one gold medal in the 2018 Winter Olympics. Previously, the best Olympic battle of the Chinese Winter Olympic team appeared in the 2010 Olympic Games, when it won 5 gold medals, and the Beijing Winter Olympics won 9 gold medals.

Gou Zhongwen is also the most "peaceful" head. Saying that he is not "peaceful" mainly refers to the fact that there are many "innovative" actions, such as the substantive reform of the association, the physical fitness test of the national team, the cross-border selection of talents, and the "big guys" of the national team such as Li Yongbo and Wang Yifu in advance of the second line. Liu Guoliang's career as the head coach of the national table tennis came to an end at that time, and Gou Zhongwen's arrangement, which was not considered a "safe score", prompted several main players of the national table tennis to stage a "farce" of boycotting the China Open.

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