On December 19, 2024, Gou Zhongwen, the director of China's General Administration of Sport, was arrested, shocking many people. In fact, as the highest-ranking "big shot" in China's sports world, Gou Zhongwen had already attracted a lot of attention when he was investigated in May.
Now that he has finally been arrested, the internet is filled with people clapping and cheering, saying that if it weren't for him, Liu Guoliang and Cai Zhenhua would not have been suppressed, and Chinese sports could have developed much better.
So, what did Gou Zhongwen do to make him so unpopular?
Information source: All the content stated in this article comes from reliable sources, which are detailed at the end of the article. Please watch rationally.
Sports Director Gou Zhongwen
In fact, as early as when Gou Zhongwen was first elected as the general director of the China Sports Bureau, the Internet was full of doubts and dissatisfaction about him.
This is not because people have prejudice against him, nor is it questioning Gou Zhongwen's ability. After all, he graduated from Xidian University, holds degrees such as a master's degree in engineering and a doctorate in management, and is also a senior engineer at the researcher level, a real talent.
The main problem is that from these achievements, we can see that Gou Zhongwen is a talent in the field of scientific research, and before that, he mainly worked in places like research and development centers and research institutes, and for sports, he is simply an "outsider."
And his competitor for the director position at the time was Cai Zhenhua, a name that sports enthusiasts must be familiar with:
Cai Zhenhua started as a table tennis player, won many world championships, brought glory to the country, and even conquered foreign countries, becoming the first Chinese athlete to appear on foreign stamps.
After retiring, Cai Zhenhua continued to shine for the country in the field of table tennis that he loved, and in 1991, he took on the task of being the head coach of the Chinese men's table tennis team in a critical situation, successfully turned the tide, and brought the Chinese men's table tennis back to the top of the world.
Later, Cai Zhenhua also served as the head coach of the table tennis team, and also submitted an excellent answer sheet. What proves his ability even more is that when Cai Zhenhua began to manage the Chinese men's football team, the performance of the Chinese men's football team improved significantly!
It can be said that in terms of academic qualifications and scientific research fields, perhaps Cai Zhenhua is far inferior to Gou Zhongwen, but in terms of sports, Cai Zhenhua can surpass Gou Zhongwen by a wide margin.
For this reason, people almost unanimously believed that it must be Cai Zhenhua who was elected director, rather than Gou Zhongwen, this "outsider," but the final result, as everyone knows, Gou Zhongwen was elected.
Of course, Gou Zhongwen's election was also justified, that is, he had previously carried out successful reforms in his own field, and now the sports world is also undergoing major reforms, and his experience is very important.
However, the facts have proved that this choice seems to be incorrect, and the things Gou Zhongwen did later made many netizens exclaim ridiculously...
Sports Crisis
The first thing netizens noticed after Gou Zhongwen took office was that Cai Zhenhua was suppressed:
This legendary figure who dedicated most of his life to China's sports world was squeezed out of the General Administration of Sport more than a year after Gou Zhongwen took office and entered the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, although he was also in a high position, but left the sports field that he was best at and loved the most.
Similarly, Liu Guoliang also suffered the same fate. This person's fame and achievements need not be mentioned, and he has made great contributions to China's table tennis cause. However, just after Gou Zhongwen took office, he directly abolished the positions of head coaches for the men's and women's table tennis teams.
Liu Guoliang, who was originally the head coach of the national table tennis team, was reassigned to become the vice-chairman of the Chinese Table Tennis Association, which looks like a promotion, but in fact, it is a disguised demotion, and Liu Guoliang lost control over the national table tennis team.
After all, it should be noted that there were already 18 vice-chairmen and 4 honorary vice-chairmen in the Chinese Table Tennis Association at that time.
This directly triggered the famous June 23 incident. Famous Chinese table tennis players such as Ma Long and Fan Zhendong, as well as coaches Ma Lin and Qin Zhijian, simultaneously voiced their opinions on online media: At this moment, we have no intention of fighting... only because we miss you, Liu Guoliang!
Subsequently, everyone announced their withdrawal from the 2017 ITTF World Tour China Open.
This undoubtedly caused a sensation, but it also finally allowed Liu Guoliang to return and become the chairman of the Chinese Table Tennis Association.
But strictly speaking, these are just job transfers and cannot prove that Gou Zhongwen himself is incompetent. What really makes people complain is that in 2020, he actually let the sports bureau implement the "Notice on Further Strengthening Basic Physical Training and Making Up for Physical Shortcomings."
Judging from the name, it is to strengthen athletes' training and enhance basic physical fitness, which is a good thing.
But in fact, according to the content of this document, no matter what sport it is, a unified physical test standard has been forcibly implemented.
In other words, whether it's running, long jumping, playing ball, swimming, or even playing cards, shooting, they all have to pass the same physical test, which is obviously very unreasonable.
After all, it's easy for runners to pass this kind of test, but what about athletes in other areas? Such a "one-size-fits-all" approach is clearly irresponsible and unreasonable.
This has also led to many outstanding athletes, such as Olympic champion Ye Shiwen and world champion Fu Yuanhui, losing their eligibility to participate in competitions. What's the difference between this and cutting off one's arm before battle?
But if you want to talk about the most ridiculous thing, it's still Gou Zhongwen's reform of the football field:
In order to better implement the reform measures, Gou Zhongwen decided to set up a national training team in the league. For this purpose, he specifically went to the Shanghai International Port Group, but was quickly rejected.
And at this time, Evergrande and Xu Jiayin took the opportunity to flatter themselves, and thus the "Evergrande National Team" came into being, completely breaking the normal system of football talent selection, making unfair competition rampant, and fans became increasingly dissatisfied.
In addition, perhaps for the purpose of encouragement, Gou Zhongwen also proposed the bizarre rule of "counting one goal as 1.5 goals." After all, this is sports competition. Will other countries have to follow this rule in the future on the international stage?
From the above-listed actions, it can be seen how deeply Gou Zhongwen has had a negative impact on Chinese sports, and for this reason, many netizens have long hoped that Gou Zhongwen could step down, and now they are naturally delighted.
But at the same time, people can't help but feel sorry. If it was Cai Zhenhua or someone else who knew more about sports in power at the beginning, would China's sports industry be better now? Can the results break through? We don't know the answer, we just hope that such "cross-border" appointments will be less and less in the future...
References:
China News Service The Supreme People's Procuratorate decides to arrest Gou Zhongwen on suspicion of bribery and abuse of power
Xinhua News Agency The Supreme People's Procuratorate decides to arrest Gou Zhongwen in accordance with the law
Jiemian News Former Director of the General Administration of Sport Gou Zhongwen was investigated, the highest-ranking official to fall in the sports anti-corruption campaign