Recently, Taihe No. 2 Middle School in Jiangxi Province decided to cancel its long-standing fitness activity — morning runs — which had been practiced for over 30 years since the school's founding, following the sudden death of a student during a morning jog.
According to relevant officials at Taihe No. 2 Middle School, on December 25, 2012, a first-year high school student named Guo Yuanhuan suddenly collapsed after a morning run, bleeding from the nose and mouth, with his limbs convulsing. The homeroom teacher immediately called 120 for emergency assistance and, together with other students, carried Guo Yuanhuan to the school gate. The ambulance arrived shortly afterward, and despite half an hour of on-site resuscitation efforts by doctors, the attempts were declared unsuccessful. The preliminary diagnosis for the cause of death was cardiac sudden death.
This incident has put Taihe No. 2 Middle School in an awkward position regarding how to get students involved in physical exercise. After weighing the options, the school authorities ultimately chose, albeit reluctantly, to give up the long-practiced morning running routine.
Some other schools are facing similar dilemmas. Since November 2012, universities in cities such as Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Hubei have witnessed consecutive cases of students dying suddenly during long-distance running. Following the example of Taihe No. 2 Middle School, some universities in Wuhan, Xi'an, and elsewhere have also canceled the long-distance running events at school sports meets citing safety concerns.
The frequent occurrence of sudden deaths among young students during sports has drawn widespread attention from society, and concerns about the current state of youth physical fitness have grown increasingly strong.
Behind these reluctant “abandonment due to fear” measures by various schools is a reflection of the declining physical condition of Chinese students caused by lack of physical exercise. In fact, the “deficit” in university students’ physical fitness has already begun to accumulate as early as in middle school or even primary school.
Zeng Wei, deputy director of the Mass Sports Division of the Jiangxi Provincial Sports Bureau, said that judging by the current situation, from primary school to high school, as academic pressure increases, the time that teenagers devote to physical exercise shows a decreasing trend. He told reporters that most schools find it difficult to truly implement the regulation set out in the "Regulations on School Physical Education Work" — which mandates at least one hour of physical activity per day. It is extremely common for physical education classes for primary and secondary school students to be taken over for other purposes.
Zou Qin, a senior student majoring in Chinese Language and Literature at Jiangxi Science and Technology Normal University, said that in her memory, PE classes in primary and secondary schools were seen as optional “minor subjects.” Sometimes these classes were used by teachers of “major subjects” like Chinese, math, and English to provide extra lessons, or they were cut short halfway through.
“Insufficient regular physical exercise will inevitably lead to a decline in physical condition, making it more likely for injuries and accidents to occur frequently on the sports field,” said Zeng Wei.
“From clinical observations, compared to 20 years ago, today’s teenagers generally have lower endurance when it comes to strenuous physical activities,” said Huang Tao, associate chief physician at the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, who has long studied adolescent growth and development. He believes that since many of today’s teenagers are only children, they rarely do household chores on one hand, while on the other, the heavy burden of academic studies crowds out time for extracurricular sports. Coupled with poor dietary habits among some children, this seriously affects physical development and leads to a general decline in physical fitness.
To this end, Huang Tao suggests that teenagers develop good eating and living habits from an early age, ensure at least eight hours of sleep every day, and set aside sufficient time for outdoor activities outside of study hours. By strengthening physical exercise to boost their physique, the tragedy of sudden deaths during sports can be avoided.