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By Zhu Qin Zhe © Zhu Qin Zhe (August 1^st 2008)

The Dream

He has been fond of sports since he was still a kid, but he didn’t have a specific clue which one he was going to put all of his efforts into.

“You should send him to a sports school,” the neighbors kindly suggested to his mother, after seeing him running miles every day without getting too tired.

“We can’t,” the poor woman replied as she threw one more empty plastic bag she had just picked up on the roadside into a huge and worn bag. “We don’t have the money for school at all.”

He heard all of this and felt pain stinging his heart as his dream slipped from his grasp. He loved sports, especially running so much that he knew he had the very talent every coach demanded of a trainee and the will to apply himself to get the best out of his talent. But the only thing he could do at that time, was help his jobless mother handle some chores and sometimes drop by the fields to finish the ploughing the aged, small woman was not able to finish.

The Opportunity

He waited until he was 9 when his mother announced that perhaps one of the three kids in the family could be allowed to receive an education. As the second oldest he knew what he was meant to do. In the shabby time he lived, the older children would have to spare the decent opportunities to the younger ones.

His elder sister gave up the chance of going to school, and he more than hesitated when he was about to pass on the access to his younger brother. However, his brother got into trouble as he hung around with nasty boys and got expelled before completing primary school. So he got his chance.

“Here you are,” his mother said as she handed over the chance of tuition to him, “You can go to school now. You earned the chance.”

The First Steps to a Promising Future

Zhu Jian Hua, the current director of the Civil Affair Office of Long Yan, Fu Jian Province, China, set foot on the road leading to a promising future. Due to his age, he didn’t manage to enter the local sports school when his turn for education arrived. Nonetheless, his passion, as well as his innate talent, couldn’t eliminate his charge towards winning in the competitions he participated in.

In 2004, when he was already 45 years old, he beat all his fellow rivals and was selected to join the 1^st Long Yan Official Running Contest on the behalf of the department he worked for. He bagged silver, despite his competitors all being young people aged between 18 -29.

A couple of years later he participated in the Xia Men International Marathon. He registered, made preparations, and set off with thousands of other participants who looked young and strong.

“I didn’t scoop the gold, of course,” he said laughing as he recalled, “It was very hard. Of course, they were all really professional. I, myself, am not so good.”

Yet he dared to try something that lay beyond what he had already mastered, despite his age and never having received any formal training.

The Pool

Interestingly enough Zhu Jian Hua stood out not only in running but also in swimming. He possessed some talent that he didn’t recognize until he was 40 years old. One day in a heated week of summer, he took a dip inside a pool and happened to see the local swimming team training. He hadn’t planned to compete, but he just couldn’t help wondering if he could excel in swimming as well.

“I heard that running and swimming are two kinds of sports that are quite related,” Zhu said when asked why he had the whim of contesting with those top seeds in the team,

“Perhaps I was too aggressive,” he said.

Zhu, unexpectedly, outpaced the trainees. He roared with joy afterwards and knew that he wanted to swim too. Now he swims a kilometer every day in the freezing winters, and 3 kilometers in the other seasons. Then in 2006, he eventually won gold in the Sports Meeting for Officials of Long Yan in the breaststroke swimming competition and won a title of ‘The Official In the pool.’

“I rarely catch a cold and never suffer from any big diseases,” the now 49-year-old said proudly. “And I will continue with the regular exercises and participate in every competition that comes to me.”

Zhu’s spirit is what makes him appreciated. He might have achieved more if he had received some formal training from the local sports school, and even won recognition by the whole country. But it wasn’t to be. His is a story of what might have been, could have been and should have been. But he is content.

“I run, I swim, because I just like to,” Zhu says optimistically. “I know I am too old to be an Olympic athlete, but I also enjoy what I have done and what I am doing.”

In fact, his attitude is what sporting icons need to possess.