Beijing trains medal presenters

The willow-thin high school student is one of 34 Chinese girls “training” to be an Olympic medal presenter at the Beijing Foreign Affairs School (BFAS), one of several state-run colleges charged with producing camera-friendly girls for awards ceremonies.

When not balancing books on her head to improve posture during medal presentation rehearsal sessions, Li and her classmates study English, cultural training and look at pictures of past medal presenters and their uniforms.

Most important for Li, though, is the smile. “I practice at home, and smile to the mirror for an hour everyday,” Li said, beaming radiantly in a red waistcoat and high heels on the sidelines of a class.

“I want to present my smile to the world, and let them know that the Chinese smile is the warmest.”

Beijing has earmarked about $40 billion to put on its best face for the Games, with Olympic venues accounting for only a small percentage.

“Building the software for the Olympics is much harder than building the hardware,” said BFAS director Li Zhiqi. “Personal qualities and mentality are firmly ingrained and therefore hard to change.”

Li says her school is doing its bit to mould well-mannered, natural communicators to deal with foreign guests.

“This is a huge opportunity for them. The Olympics will put them in front of the world’s audience and lead to a life-time of fortune,” Li said. That is, if they make the grade.

Not unlike the more than 800,000 Chinese who have applied for only 100,000 Olympic volunteer positions on offer, the competition to become one of the coveted 380-odd medal presenters is cut-throat.

Applicants are also up against biological constraints. “Girls must be at least 1.63 metres tall... There are no real weight restrictions but they mustn’t be too heavy,” Li said, citing selection criteria.

While Zhao Dongming, the department’s director, said the guidelines were so applicants could “fit into the uniforms being provided”, rights groups have cried discrimination.

“In planning the Olympics, officials at the highest levels of Government should publicly condemn discrimination rather than reinforce harmful stereotypes and unfair hiring practices,” Brad Adams, Asia Executive Director of Human Rights Watch said.

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