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The Paper (www.thepaper.cn) learned from Zhejiang University’s Human Resources Department on July 16 that the process for famous swimmer Fu Yuanhui to join the university’s Public Sports and Art Department as a “teaching-focused position” has started, and she will be responsible for swimming course teaching and other tasks.

The picture shows the famous swimmer Fu Yuanhui. Visual China data map

Born in 1996, Fu Yuanhui, a girl from Hangzhou, started swimming at the age of 5. She was selected for the national team in 2011 and won the women's 50m backstroke and women's 4×100 medley relay championships at the 2015 Kazan World Championships. During the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, she became famous for saying that she had "used all her strength" after advancing to the 100m backstroke final, accompanied by rich facial expressions. This year, she just graduated with a master's degree from Beijing Sports University.

Previously, Zhejiang University's Department of Public Sports and Arts had three world champions teaching, namely Xu Yaping, a former member of the national canoeing team who won seven gold medals in multiple World Cups, badminton world champion Han Chengkai, and aerobics world champion Shou Minchao.

Different from sports colleges and sports departments, the public sports department of universities is responsible for physical education teaching for all students, mass sports activities, campus sports culture construction, etc. Thepaper.cn (www.thepaper.cn) found that many world champions have joined Peking University, Tsinghua University, Sun Yat-sen University, Sichuan University, Fujian Institute of Technology, etc. as teachers in the public sports departments of universities.

Champions join universities: teach public courses and lead school teams

Liu Wei, a table tennis player who won seven world championships, completed her undergraduate and doctoral studies at Peking University after retiring. She joined the Department of Physical Education and Research of Peking University in 2003 and is currently a professor in the Department of Physical Education. According to the Peking University News Network, she founded the Peking University Founder Table Tennis Club to explore a talent training model that combines studying and playing, and sports and education, to cultivate outstanding students with special talents. In 2022, she launched the "Champion Lecture Hall - Sports Culture and Innovative Spirit" elective course at Peking University, inviting champions from multiple projects and experts and scholars in the field of sports and education to share the Olympic spirit and life insights.

Liu Wei, table tennis player who has won seven world championships

According to a report by Guangming Daily last year, Ding Ning, who won the "Grand Slam" of the Olympics, World Table Tennis Championships, World Cup and National Games, joined Peking University as a lecturer in the Department of Physical Education. Her research direction is sports training and she has taught table tennis courses.

Tsinghua University’s WeChat official account “Humanities Tsinghua Forum” released a message in October 2021: Table tennis world champion Liu Guozheng joined the school’s Sports Department.

Luo Wei at the award ceremony of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Yuguo

According to the official website of Sun Yat-sen University, there are four Olympic champions in the teaching staff of the Department of Physical Education of the university, namely Associate Professor Luo Wei (Athens Olympic Women's Taekwondo Champion), Associate Professor Zhang Jiewen (Athens Olympic Women's Badminton Doubles Champion), Associate Professor Jiao Liuyang (London Olympic Women's 200m Butterfly Champion) and Lecturer Yang Yilin (Beijing Olympic Women's Gymnastics Team Champion). In addition to teaching public physical education classes, they also serve as coaches for the school's Taekwondo, Badminton, Swimming and Aerobics teams, leading the school teams to achieve outstanding results in competitions.

In addition, in June 2022, Zhang Xiaoya, a member of the women's volleyball world champion team, announced on social media that she had joined Sichuan University. According to the official website of Fujian University of Technology, another member of the women's volleyball world champion team, Lin Li, joined the university in 2022 as an associate professor in the Department of Physical Education.

Champion Classroom: Imparting skills and spreading sportsmanship

"From a world champion to a university teacher, one needs to go through a big identity change. One needs to start from scratch, learn humbly, and think about how to transfer the spirit of sports to education. At the same time, sports is not only about imparting skills, but also about the integration of knowledge from multiple fields such as culture, history, and science." Xu Yaping, associate professor of the Department of Public Sports and Art at Zhejiang University, said in an interview with The Paper.

Xu Yaping started teaching at Zhejiang University in 2011. She was the first among domestic universities to offer comprehensive water sports courses such as kayaking, kayak ball, paddle board, paddle board yoga, rowing, dragon boat, and water safety and rescue. She promoted the Olympic spirit of "mutual understanding, friendship, unity and fair competition" and the marine culture of "courage, exploration, adventure and innovation" to students. She advocated the concept of "sports +" and encouraged students to combine their majors with sports. For example, students majoring in automation discussed how to use unmanned driving technology to ensure the safety of water sports, and medical students analyzed the impact of sports on the human body, such as fitness and nutrition, sports injury rehabilitation, etc. She organized students to participate in the planning of rowing, dragon boat, and leisure kayaking for students from famous Chinese and international universities to deepen their experience and broaden their horizons through cross-cultural practice.

Xu Yaping, former member of the national canoeing team

"Everyone can be a champion if they do their best and become the best version of themselves." According to a report by Peking University News Network in March this year, in the "Champion Lecture" public elective course, Liu Wei encouraged students to feel the champions' hard work and tenacity from their growth process and transform the sportsmanship and champion spirit into the power of learning and life. At present, the hard work stories of the 12 guest teachers of the "Champion Lecture" have been collected and published.

Luo Wei, who joined Sun Yat-sen University in 2013, is the first Olympic champion introduced by the school. According to a report in Yangcheng Evening News in March 2022, she is in charge of the public physical education class of Taekwondo, and the 240 places in one semester are "snatched" by 8,000 students. In class, Luo Wei teaches every move to students with zero foundation, and also conveys the Taekwondo spirit of etiquette, patience, self-denial, perseverance and self-challenge. She recalled the moment when she won the gold medal, and also shared how she stood up when she lost the game, was injured, and was at a low point. At the same time, she also guided the training of the Taekwondo school team and student clubs, and led the school team to win the Guangdong Provincial University Student Taekwondo Championship for three consecutive years.