China’s gymnastics coaches will be forced to sign contracts promising not to let their athletes get injured before the Beijing Olympics, team leader Zhang Peiwen told Friday’s China Daily.
China will be relying on their gymnasts for a bumper haul of gold medals at next August’s Games, and officials are anxious to avoid a repeat of the injury which has kept double Olympic champion Li Xiaoping out of competition this year.
“In the coming days, all the Chinese national coaches will sign contracts with the gymnastics administrative center to prevent serious injuries from happening before the Beijing games,” he told the paper. “We don’t want injuries to destroy our prospects for the Beijing games. I hope we can reduce injuries to a minimum by signing these contracts.”
The Chinese team for the world athletics championships earlier this year signed contracts committing them to minimum achievements in Osaka, and Zhang said his gymnasts would also sign a commitment not to use drugs.
“I do not mean our gymnasts will take drugs intentionally, but I am just afraid that they might take them by mistake, such as unauthorized nutritious medicines,” he told the paper.
“The purpose of signing the contract is to give all gymnasts a warning and to avoid any accidents.”
Zhang, speaking at a test event for the Beijing Olympics, said he was pleased with how things were going with eight months to go, even though Li Xiaoping’s recovery was “slow”.
“This is our best Olympic preparation ever,” Zhang said. “Apart from Li, none of the team is troubled by injuries. They can put their best efforts into the coming winter training camp.”
China won eight golds at the 2006 world championships and another five at the Stuttgart worlds earlier this year as well as dominating the Olympic test event.
Zhang was particularly pleased with Lu Bin, who returned from more than a year out injured, to win four titles last weekend.
“That was a remarkable achievement,” Zhang said. “Faced with serious injury, he did not give up. I just love that spirit, and that will inspire the whole team to better prepare for the Olympic Games.”
But Lu’s heroics will not be enough to guarantee him a spot in the squad for the Beijing games, Zhang said.
“Even Lu knows only next year’s form counts.”
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Delegations are organizing for the 11th Pan American Maccabean Games, Buenos Aires 2007 which begin soon. 
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