China coxswain reality show slims down

By Melissa Bray

The little people of the big rowing boat are taking China national television by storm. China’s quest to find their Beijing Olympic coxswains via reality survival show is now being aired with the first series of 80 hopefuls being narrowed down to 20 finalists.

To survive through to the next round the Olympic coxswain-hopefuls have to go through a series of exercises created from consultation with a group of rowing coaches who specified the qualities necessary to make an Olympic coxswain. The exercises have been turned into a variety of competitions and games. Included is a balance game where contestants must move around on a device that simulates the feeling of a boat in level three, white capped, waves.

A safety drill has the coxswains remove the oars from a flipped scull, swim the oars back to shore and then guide the boat to the side.

Communication aspects are presented through personally chosen performances by the contestants using their own talents like singing or dancing.

These are just some of many activities making up the 17 part series. A panel of judges involved in rowing, administrators, coaches and former athletes score the contestants after each activity. This survival-type method will bring the number of contestants down the 20 for the final series. These 20 will then join China’s national team rowers possibly at the Qinghai National Rowing Training Centre near Shanghai and the final series to narrow the coxswains to the winning four will be shown live on television beginning at the end of this summer.

The contestants' backgrounds are broad including several doctors, a priest, several professors, a farmer and some college students. The ages range from 17 to 41 years. A number of the contestants have rowing in their background including the current coxswain of China’s women’s eight, Na Zheng. Zheng has been the national team coxswain since 1995 and took the team to a fourth-place finish at last year’s World Rowing Championships in Eton.

China’s national team athletes have not had a lot of time to follow the competition due to their busy training schedule, but the coaches have been taking a keen interest. The coaches joined the opening ceremony and will be watching the final series closely.

The series is being shown on China Central Television (CCTV) with the entire country a potential audience.

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