Students urged to play into shape

By Xu Fan (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-29 07:54

Obesity, myopia worry officials

One of the goals of a new soccer competition is to help reduce the number of young Beijingers with obesity and myopia, a senior official said at the launch of the cup aimed at primary and high school students.

Jiang Xiaoyu, vice-chairman of the Beijing Olympic City Development Association, said the fact that Beijing topped the nation for childhood obesity and myopia was "worrying".

"China has conducted a nationwide physical examination of primary and secondary school students every five years since 1985," Jiang said. "Other than the fact that the rate of anemia keeps falling, the other rates, for such things as weight and girth measurements, keep rising."

He said Chinese children's physical condition lagged far behind children of the same age in Japan, except that "17-year-old Chinese girls' average height is higher than their Japanese counterparts".

"What is most worrying is the fact that the public hasn't realized how serious the problem is because people have been more concerned about financial subjects," he said.

Jiang said students need to make some lifestyle changes.

"We should ask our children to leave the computer games they play in their spare time and ask them to get out and play in the sunshine and fresh air," Jiang said.

Liu Jingmin, vice-mayor of Beijing and administrative vice-chairman of the Beijing Olympic City Development Association, said soccer could be an important part of young people's healthy lifestyles and an "Olympic City Cup" was a "helpful" first step.

The city-wide soccer competition for teenagers, which has attracted more than 200 primary and junior high schools, kicked off last Saturday.

The competition, which will run from March to August, is part of the post-Olympic education program jointly sponsored by the Beijing Olympic City Development Association, Beijing Municipal Commission of Education and Beijing Municipal Bureau of Sport.

The competition hopes to attract at least 30 percent of the capital's primary and junior high schools. Senior high schools are excluded because "students might have to spend more time on college entrance exams".

The Olympic City Cup includes seven-student matches for junior high schools and five-student matches for primary schools.

The deadline for schools to enter into the competition is Wednesday.