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recently, more than 3,800 freshmen of the class of 2024 dressed in camouflage uniforms gathered in the tsinghua university gymnasium to attend their first physical education class since entering the university. as representatives of tsinghua students, athletes who participated in the paris olympics shared their stories of how they became involved in sports and how they struggled and fought for it with the freshmen. warm applause broke out from time to time, and the students present were very excited.

sports is a shining name card of tsinghua university. “without sports, there is no tsinghua” is deeply rooted in the hearts of generations of tsinghua people. at the beginning of the new semester, tsinghua has inherited more than a hundred years of sports education philosophy and sports teaching tradition, and has started a dream-building journey for a new batch of tsinghua students, continuing the sports legend of this top university in china.

the “ma cup” builds the olympic dream

the chinese sports delegation won 40 gold medals at the paris olympics. this new chapter in chinese sports also left behind the youthful style of tsinghua students.

zhang qiongyue, a 2023 undergraduate student from the school of economics and management, won the third place in the women's 50-meter rifle three-position event; xu nuo, a 2024 master's student from the school of social sciences, won the fourth place in the women's epee team; xia yuyu, a 2024 doctoral student from the school of social sciences, successfully completed the women's marathon; ye shiwen, the 2012 london olympic champion and a 2014 alumnus of the school of law, competed in the olympics again and ranked sixth in the women's 200-meter breaststroke event...

tsinghua's imprint on the olympic games stems from the century-old heritage of tsinghua sports. tsinghua university, nicknamed "wudaokou sports school", has a profound sports tradition and historical accumulation. the strong campus sports atmosphere has cultivated students' love for sports and the habit of exercising. campus marathon, freshman barefoot sports meeting, graduate student sports meeting, "bauhinia peak" basketball game, "the last kick" football game, "overwhelming" volleyball game... rich extracurricular competition activities have covered all students in various departments.

"the student group competition starts in september every year and ends in april of the following year. it includes more than 40 competition events, more than 1,000 competition activities, and nearly 50,000 participants, which effectively increases students' enthusiasm for extracurricular exercise." said liu bo, director of the sports department of tsinghua university.

over the years, tsinghua has achieved fruitful results in competitive sports such as shooting and track and field. among them, tsinghua track and field won the "15th consecutive championship" in the beijing university track and field games; tsinghua men's and women's basketball teams have won the chinese university basketball league championship many times. as of 2023, tsinghua will have 33 international athletes and 163 national athletes. olympic champions yang qian, yi siling, world champions hu kai, xia yuyu, etc. are all tsinghua students.

the "mayou cup" student comprehensive sports meeting, affectionately called "ma cup" by teachers and students, is the most important annual sports event of tsinghua university. it has a history of more than 20 years, and the oldest track and field meeting has been held for 67 times. this event implements a points system and runs throughout the school year. the participating events involve many categories such as track and field, swimming, table tennis, badminton, etc.

"i often tell my students that the 'ma cup' is the 'olympics' for you and me." hu kai, my country's first world major sports event men's 100m champion and deputy director of the sports department of tsinghua university, said that in the fierce competition of the "ma cup", tsinghua students interpreted the spiritual connotation of "no sports, no tsinghua".

in the 10 years from 2006 to 2016, chen xi, a student at the school of environment at tsinghua university, won a total of 73 individual championships in the "ma cup", including 10 women's triathlon championships. this girl, who was warned by doctors not to participate in sports due to a comminuted fracture, created a sports miracle in the "ma cup".

chen xi, now a teacher at the school of environment at tsinghua university, once again won the gold medal for the women's triathlon for the school. chen xi said that the most unforgettable scene was everyone celebrating the victory of the "mayo cup" on the playground, hugging, jumping, crying and laughing passionately. "this is the real and splendid life we ​​yearn for in our hearts."

the playground becomes a "lifelong classroom"

on the honorary display board in tsinghua gymnasium, the photo of mr. ma yuehan, a famous chinese sports educator, is particularly eye-catching. since 1914, ma yuehan has worked at tsinghua for 52 years and is the most important advocate of sports in tsinghua. the annual "ma yuehan cup" is to commemorate his outstanding contribution to tsinghua sports.

from mr. ma youhan’s educational thought of “the transfer value of sports”, to president jiang nanxiang’s proposal of “striving to work for the health of the motherland for at least 50 years”, to the sports education concept of “putting education first, giving equal importance to physical fitness and personality”, to the students’ consensus of “no sports, no tsinghua”... for more than a hundred years, the consistent and enduring sports education concept has become one of tsinghua university’s characteristics.

ma youhan's sports philosophy is always permeated with the idea that sports can make the body, mind and personality develop and improve together. he hopes that students will be "physically strong" and often urges them to "exercise well and not go out to embarrass the chinese people", "we can lose the ball, but we must not lose sportsmanship", and "we must bring sportsmanship into our lives and never give up". the scene where he excitedly shouted "faster! faster! try your best!" to the students who were fighting hard on the playground track has become an unforgettable campus memory for generations of tsinghua students.

guan lingxiao, a doctoral student at tsinghua university's school of aeronautics and astronautics, has a deep impression of the school's sports atmosphere: "at 4 or 5 in the morning, there are people jogging on campus, and after 4:30 in the afternoon, the playground is even more crowded."

as a member of tsinghua university's ice hockey team, guan lingxiao always runs around the campus after every training session, no matter how late it is. "through physical exercise, my willpower and physical fitness have been enhanced, i am more energetic, and i am more comfortable in studying and doing scientific research."

"we want to turn tsinghua's playground into a 'lifelong classroom' for tsinghua students." hu kai said that tsinghua's sports tradition has been passed down to this day, with different connotations in different eras, but the same thing is to strengthen the body, hone the quality, and strive to serve the country longer and better. "this kind of sports education may have an invisible impact on students' bones."

since 1998, the 3,000-meter test for boys and the 1,500-meter test for girls in physical education class have become a feature and basic requirement of tsinghua university. since 2014, tsinghua university has resumed the first physical education class for freshmen. in 2017, tsinghua university resumed the old school rule that students who "cannot swim" cannot graduate. tsinghua university has opened more than 50 sports-related courses, including track and field, ball games, swimming, martial arts, taekwondo, artistic gymnastics, fencing, diving, shooting, etc. many courses have become excellent courses at the school, beijing and national levels...

in recent years, tsinghua university has attached greater importance to physical education. not only has it made the "first physical education class" for freshmen an important part of its entrance education, but it has also established a "4+2+2" physical education teaching model, namely 4 semesters of compulsory credit courses, 2 semesters of compulsory non-credit courses, and 2 semesters of elective courses, so that all four grades of undergraduates have to take physical education classes.

sports raises the banner of education

after more than a hundred years of accumulation, exploration and development, tsinghua has formed a unique system of physical education. as a double first-class university, how to carry forward tsinghua's sports tradition in the new historical period, keep pace with the times, continue to innovate, and better play the role of sports in educating people has become a new topic for physical education workers at tsinghua university.

tsinghua statistics show that although the school's boys' 3,000-meter run, girls' 1,500-meter run and boys' pull-up scores are all higher than the national average, they are still on a downward trend compared with 20 years ago.

"this fully reflects the importance and urgency of sports work." liu bo believes that the role of university sports should be "four-in-one", namely "enjoying fun, enhancing physical fitness, improving personality, and tempering will". schools should regard sports as an important part of educating people, physical education teachers should take the cultivation of outstanding talents with all-round development as their original intention and mission, and students should take sports as a lifelong hobby and habit.

he said that on the basis of coordinating classroom teaching, team management, extracurricular exercises and competitions, venue construction, and discipline development, tsinghua will continue to explore and promote diversified evaluation reforms in physical education teaching, encourage more departments to pay attention to sports and participate in sports projects, and hope to form replicable experience that suits the new situation and new requirements.

from a student athlete to a master's and doctoral student, to a counselor and a teacher at the school, for more than 10 years, hu kai has been thinking about how to "feed back" his professional skills and the nutrition he got from tsinghua to his junior fellow students.

in hu kai's view, physical education is more about cultivating abilities, and ultimately achieving value formation, cultivating correct values, and shaping healthy bodies and personalities for students. "from sports to education, the word 'education' remains unchanged."

source: xinhua news agency

source: beijing sports