The Paper's reporter Ma Zuoyu
The development of China's road running industry is in full swing. This article picture CFP
Without COVID-19, how far would China's marathon industry have grown? This is a proposition that is difficult to give a definitive answer, but it is certain that China's marathon industry is in the ascendant before the epidemic causes two consecutive years of large-scale postponement and cancellation of autumn and winter events.
During this time, a new book called "Marathon Times" appeared in front of readers. The book chronicles the development of marathon sports in China in the form of chronicles, and shows how marathon sports have changed from a highly professional competitive sport to a national sport in China through the big and small stories of more than 400 characters.
In China's more than 40 years of marathon history, there is no such a complete record of the development and change process of the marathon, and more importantly, it restores the real appearance of the Chinese marathon from the 1980s to the present through runners and events.
"The level of running China's top marathon events is actually not much different from the six international Grand Slam events. What we're bad about is that cultural accumulation isn't enough. In an exclusive interview with the surging news reporter (www.thepaper.cn), Zhang Luping, author of "Marathon Times", affirmed the development of China's marathon and also pointed out the problems, "The problems exposed by the epidemic and the 'silver incident', safety is still the pain point of China's road running." ”
Marathon events have been highly favored in China in recent years.
The development of China's marathon has experienced three important nodes
Zhang Luping is the editor-in-chief of Runner World magazine and a marathon enthusiast. The reason why he spent more than a year interviewing Chinese marathon runners and compiling various event materials into a book is precisely because after graduating from the History Department, he found that in the process of deeply understanding the sport, he found that there was a lack of a book on the development of Chinese marathons in the history of Chinese marathons.
In the process of collating the data, Zhang Luping found that the development process of the Chinese marathon has experienced three important nodes, each of which has a profound impact on the sport.
"The first important milestone was in 1981, when the first Beijing Marathon was held in Beijing, which was the first year of the City Marathon." Although only 86 runners from 12 countries and regions registered to participate in the event at that time, in Zhang Luping's view, this event, which is called "national horse" by many people, laid the foundation for the gradual development of the marathon in China.
"The second node was in 1998, when the Beijing Marathon was officially opened to the public." Zhang Luping told the surging news reporter that at that marathon, the organizers also added half marathons, 10 km running and mini marathon events, which mean that the marathon is no longer an event that only elite athletes can participate in.
The third time node is 2014. That year, the State Council Document No. 46 "Several Opinions on Accelerating the Development of the Sports Industry to Promote Sports Consumption" was officially introduced, and the sports industry became a new favorite, and among the many "darlings", marathons and various road running events with different mileages were the most popular projects.
It was at that time that China's road running industry, including marathons, ushered in a "blowout" – the number of events surged from 51 in 2014 to 1,828 marathons registered with the Chinese Athletics Association alone in 2019.
Referring to this rapid development, Zhang Luping mentioned a name: "In fact, the Chinese marathon can develop so rapidly, thanks to Yao Ming." ”
The reason why Zhang Luping mentioned Yao Ming was precisely because Yao Ming, who was a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference at the time, put forward the opinion of "canceling the approval of the event", which was finally written into the No. 46 document issued by the State Council: "Of course, the marathon is also the fastest implemented sport in all events, and I remember that in March of the following year, the Athletics Management Center at that time directly announced the cancellation of all approvals." ”
In Zhang Luping's view, it is also because of these three important time nodes that the Chinese marathon has become a "unique" in the Chinese sports circle, "the marathon has developed from a professional competitive project to a national fitness sport with public participation, which is not in the history of Chinese sports, and no other project has developed to become a social phenomenon like the marathon." ”
The number of domestic marathon events is growing rapidly.
The number of events is growing rapidly, and the cultural heritage needs to be accumulated
Why is the marathon called a "social phenomenon"? The data left over from the past two years of China's marathons alone is enough to illustrate the problem.
According to the data given by the Chinese Athletics Association, there were only 22 marathons in the country in 2011, and even in 2014, when the State Council's No. 46 document was issued, there were only 51 marathons in the country.
But since then, everything has changed dramatically – in 2015 there were 134 registered events; in 2016, it reached 328; in 2017, this figure became 1,100, with nearly 5 million participants; and in 2019, the number of registered events nationwide reached 1,828, with a cumulative total of 7,125,600 participants...
"There are more and more events, and from the perspective of the level of running the competitions, the service guarantee system of China's excellent events, including the use of urban resources, is not much different from the top foreign events, including the six Grand Slams." Zhang Luping told the surging news reporter that this was the unanimous view he got when he compiled the "Marathon Era" and when interviewing runners and runners at home and abroad.
However, Zhang Luping also pointed out that the number is only one aspect of marathon development, "The gap between China's marathons lies in cultural accumulation, and some events are seriously ignored for the accumulation of marathon culture." ”
Zhang Luping gave an example of an event where the organizers of an event wanted to make a picture book for the event, but found that the information and pictures of the event were seriously insufficient, and finally they could only collect photos from the former contestants.
The recorded development data is one of the important factors for the movement to accumulate cultural heritage: "In fact, many cultural institutions are now interested in marathons, but one of the problems they face in excavating Chinese marathon culture is that they are not clear about history. ”
The level of running high-level marathon events in China is no less than that of internationally renowned events.
In addition, in Zhang Luping's view, the ability of Chinese runners to spread the marathon story and marathon spirit also needs to be improved. "There are also some writers in China who can write books about marathon culture, but there are too few such authors."
Zhang Luping said frankly that there are some authors who are willing to write marathon stories, they "may just walk some events", and those who are in the core group of marathon "serious runners", many are not good at expression, "in the longer history of Europe and the United States running circle, many runners will write marathon books, generally divided into teaching science and humanities, but in the polarized Chinese running circle, runners with rich experience and related knowledge, rarely can write these contents." ”
From niche competition to national fitness, Chinese road running, including marathons, should have its own circle and culture, in Zhang Luping's view, this depends on more people who love running to cultivate and spread together.
Road running is becoming more and more popular in China.
In the "window period", the thinking and adjustment of China Road Running
In today's special period, the advantages of the road running environment are encountering difficulties. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic around the world has led to the postponement or cancellation of one event after another over the past two years due to the pandemic.
"The impact of the pandemic on the marathon has been too great." When referring to the impact of the epidemic, Zhang Luping also mentioned the Gansu Baiyin Mountain Marathon accident that has attracted great attention before.
These two events, which seem to be not directly related externally, actually involve the same issue, "Whether it is a silver accident or an epidemic, their core is safety, the safety of the participants." ”
Zhang Luping told the surging news reporter that since the rapid development of China's marathon in 2014, safety has always been a pain point in the marathon industry - from the keyword "sudden death" that appears every year, to the death of runners in mountain events, and now the events have been cancelled because they are worried that runners will be infected with the new crown.
"This 'window period' brought about by the epidemic will make the organizers of marathon events and other road running events more considerate and more cautious about running races." The silver accident will make the government and event regulatory authorities have stricter requirements for market players. ”
Safety is a top priority in road running events.
Zhang Luping gave an example that has caused a lot of discussion in the running circle during this time, that is, the Chinese Athletics Association issued the "Management Measures for National Road Running and Related Sports Event Operating Companies" on its official website on November 24, which requires "more than 15 registered employees of the event company". According to public statistics, last year, only about 41% of the employees of the national road running competition companies were more than 15 people.
"It is true that many event companies in the market do not meet this requirement, but after the epidemic gradually stabilizes, this will be the future direction of the marathon." Zhang Luping admits that this development trend may cause the market to be dominated by several large event companies, which may not be the most encouraged trend from the perspective of market economy, "but in terms of solving security problems, this is a realistic way." ”
Through the collation of the history of China's marathon development in the past 40 years, Zhang Luping is quite confident in the future of China's marathon, "China's organizers are very smart, they will find a new model under the epidemic, just like online running, which we developed first." And China's marathon still has a lot of room for development, and our road running will become better and better. ”
Editor-in-Charge: Pu Yaolei
Proofreader: Zhang Liangliang