I’ve been studying the fast-twitch wushu artists as they perform in Cirque du Soleil’s Ka.
With an estimated 60-80 million participants in China, it’s a shame wushu was not accepted.
Lu Jinming felt like he had been kicked in the guts when he heard that martial art wushu would not be a demonstration sport at the Beijing 2008 Games.
“We are still very hopeful of it becoming an Olympic item,” Lu sighed, as he studied 10-year-olds brandishing swords and launching flying kicks metres away from him.
“But unfortunately the decision is out of our hands.”
As a senior coach at Beijing’s prestigious Shichahai Sports School, Lu has championed wushu — both a contact and exhibition sport derived from traditional Chinese martial arts — for decades and watched graduates mount podiums from regional championships right up to the Asian Games.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC), however, loath to endorse more than 28 sports at the Summer Games after years of expansion, have slammed the door shut on wushu for Beijing.
An international wushu tournament is scheduled for 2008 but it will lack the demonstration status that Korean martial art taekwondo enjoyed at the 1988 and 1992 Olympics on its way to becoming a full sport at the Sydney 2000 Games.
Olympic dream still kicking at school of hard knocks – Guardian
photo of artists in Ka – the most expensive live show in modern history – Review Journal
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