Shiming Zou

Nickname

At first Chinese sports reporters nicknamed him the Dark Horse. He has also been called the Knight of Lightning, the Fox and the Pirate, which all make reference to his knack of avoiding his opponents' reach and snatching points. (newyorker.com, 10 Mar 2008)

Hobbies

Travelling, singing, surfing the Internet. (baike.baidu.com, 02 Aug 2010)

Occupation

Athlete

Education

Shanghai University of Sport, Shanghai, CHN

Family

Wife, Yingying Ren

Language(s) spoken

Chinese

Club name

Shenqian Club, Shanghai, CHN

Coach

Chuanliang Zhang (CHN) from 1997 (Athlete, 17 Nov 2010)

Debut

2003 for China, World Championships (Bangkok) (baike.baidu.com, 02 Aug 2010)

Injuries

He suffered with niggling back and foot injuries in early 2008. (guardian.co.uk, 04 May 2008)

Additional information

Start of sporting career
He started boxing in 1997 in Guizhou, China (Athlete, 17 Nov 2010)

Reason for taking up this sport
His parents enrolled him in a private school to study Wushu but he thought Wushu emphasised form over fighting and instead he was attracted to boxing, which seemed explosive and free. He fell in love with boxing and felt free when he was in the ring and he did not feel controlled by anyone. (newyorker.com, 10 Mar 2008guardian.co.uk, 04 May 2008)

Training
He alternates between his regular weight and his fighting weight between events, and has to spend most of his time before competition eating extremely carefully. He says he spends anything up to a month hungry, grumpy and irritable and constantly has to apologise to the people around him. For a distraction, he eats watermelon slices and spits out the pulp. (newyorker.com, 10 Mar 2008)

Hero
Former world heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali, Jackie Chan, Deng Yaping. (guardian.co.uk, 04 May 2008
baike.baidu.com, 02 Aug 2010)

Superstitions / Rituals
He shares an embrace with coach Zhang Chuanliang just before his fight to calm himself down. (guardian.co.uk, 04 May 2008)

Awards
Named as China's Most Valuable Boxer at the 2007 World Championships in Chicago, United States. (en.ce.cn/sports, 20 Nov 2007)

His gold medal at the 2005 World Championships in Mianyang, China meant he was the nation's first amateur world boxing champion. (guardian.co.uk, 04 May 2008)

His bronze medal in the light flyweight division at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece was China's first Olympic boxing medal. (english.people.com.cn, 07 Sep 2005)

General
CHINA BOXING
He says that although boxing was originally a western sport, China can become a world power as his results have demonstrated. He believes the key to this is an innovative fighting style that combines the advantages of martial arts with the skills and tactics of boxing. "Martial arts have a soft and flexible side and boxing is more direct," he said. "Putting them together is a speciality of Chinese boxing." His coach Zhang was a martial arts trainer until the ban on boxing in China was lifted in 1986. (newyorker.com, 10 Mar 2008, guardian.co.uk, 04 May 2008)

EARLY STRUGGLE
When he first asked his mother if he could switch to boxing from wushu, she was against the idea because she thought he was too delicate. So he told his parents that he would stick to martial arts, but began training with the school boxing team. In 1995 he showed up at the Zunyi Sports School in the Guizhou Province along with 1,900 other children all hoping to earn one of four spots available on the school's boxing team. He was discarded in the first round eliminations because his reach was deemed not to be long enough by the school's boxing coaches. Two weeks later he showed up again and stood with the other applicants which impressed the coach in charge, Liang Feng. His debut in the ring was unremarkable but coach Liang noticed that his martial arts training had given him good footwork and that he was nimble and had a natural sense of how to stay just out of his opponent's reach, so decided to take a chance on him. (newyorker.com, 10 Mar 2008, guardian.co.uk, 04 May 2008)

FAMILY DISAPPROVAL
His parents disapproved of him boxing and demanded that he stop, but they were won over when a coach visited their home to emphasise the sport's safety. He reasoned that amateur boxing relied on speed and accuracy rather than the raw strength and power of professional boxing. The coach also explained that in countries where boxing is popular like Cuba, it wasn't unusual for children as young as three to begin training, comparing it to table tennis in China. His mother was finally convinced when the coach mentioned that his own son was also boxing. (guardian.co.uk, 04 May 2008)

Previous Olympics

Beijing 2008, Athens 2004