🥇 Despite the tough drills, officials say the focus is now on 'happy gymnastics' rather than securing medals.
AFP have gained access to China's gymnastics training centres over the past 4 years, chronicling the lives of children who are being honed for Olympic glory
💪"We are more relaxed now. In the past, we certainly hoped to produce lots of champions," said Liu Fen, deputy headmaster at Li Xiaoshuang school.
The Tokyo Olympics, starting in July, will be the culmination of years of training for China's top gymnasts.
♦️ Pressure to succeed is high, after China's gymnastics team failed to win gold at Rio 2016 - eight years after they dominated at the Beijing Games
At the national training centre in the capital Beijing, the Chinese flag adorns a wall along with a red banner saying: "Win the Tokyo Olympics" telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/1…
There is little room for error for the young athletes.
📌 They bow to coaches in apology if they are not up to scratch
📌 Bad performance is punished with extra weight training at the end of a long day telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/1…
📚 Li Xiaoshuang school provides academic lessons for its students but the main focus is afternoon training in the large gym.
🛌 At night, they sleep in bunk beds - two sharing the top mattresses, two in the lower berths, in dormitories
❌💬After growing resistance among parents to committing their children to this uncompromising world, there are hints of change.
"If you always follow the old training model to teach, it won't work," said Ms Liu, the deputy headmaster telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/1…
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📌Armed terrorists took over the hotel town
📌 Law and order collapsed
📌 Civilians were left to fend for themselves
📌 Masked psychopaths slaughtered with impunity
Observers were shocked…
🔴 “The brutality is unbelievable,” said Lionel Dyck, whose private security firm was hired by the Mozambican government in 2020.
"What they do to the people they capture and kill I have never seen anywhere in Africa,” Dyck continued telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/0…
From sexting to online porn and dating apps, it's fair to say that teenagers in 2021 are growing up in a very different world from their parents and teachers when it comes to sex and relationships
Young people are desperate for more reliable information. They know the gist of what they're missing; they see it online; on porn sites, Bridgerton even. But for many millennials and older members of Gen Z, getting good sex education has come too little, too late
🍻 I can’t wait to be back in a beer garden. The thought of drinking a pint of ale from a barrel, rather than a lukewarm cooler, almost makes my brain short-circuit
😎 Sitting on wonky wooden benches, donning sunglasses and SPF when it hits eight degrees and scoffing on the bar’s offering of deep fried anything come 10pm – I want it all.
But, before going to the pub, there’s somewhere else I’ll be heading
📌 In the last week, there has been a 57.46% decrease in the rollout of first doses across the UK
📌Ministers have told the NHS to stop booking new appointments in April, with the rollout instead switching focus to giving people their second dose
📌 The slowdown also comes as UK vaccine advisers recommended people aged 18 to 29 should be offered a different vaccine due to evidence linking AstraZeneca jabs to blood clots