Girl, 8, slave to the Olympic spirit

Doctors fear that little Huimin's extraordinary training feat to fulfil her father's golden dream risks wrecking her body, writes Lindsey Hilsum

Through the wind, rain and sweltering heat, through the dingy towns of central China, a little girl in shorts and singlet is running. She's been on the road since 3 July, when she set off from her home in Hainan, China's southernmost province, heading for Beijing, 3,558km away. Her aim is to reach the Great Wall.

Pinned to her chest and back, like a competitor's bib, is a yellow cloth with red characters reading: 'Olympic Spirit, Strong Body, Extreme Challenge, Honour for the Nation.'

Eight-year-old Zhang Huimin is the most extreme example of the fervour for sporting success sweeping China a year before the Beijing Olympics, which will start on the auspicious 08/08/08. At 20kg - the weight of a packed suitcase - and standing only 1.25m tall (just over 4ft), she looks tiny and fragile. For some she represents the Olympic spirit of determination to achieve against all odds; but for others, a kind of mania which may end in disaster.

Huimin had been preparing for more than a year. She got up every day at 2.30am and ran through the dark, deserted streets of her home town, Lingao, completing a half-marathon before dawn. Then she went to school, had a nap after lunch, did her homework in the scruffy yard where her father raises fish for sale, and trained with makeshift weights before going to bed at 9pm.

While she ran, her father, Zhang Jianmin, cycled beside her. A frustrated athlete himself, he has poured all his ambition into his exceptional but vulnerable daughter. 'Her training may be too harsh for others, but she's used to it,' he says. 'No matter what science says, as long as it suits her, it's a good scheme. All theory must be based on practice.'

Certainly she seems happy. She leaps and laughs as she runs, apparently tireless. As dawn breaks, after three hours with scarcely a break, she doesn't even have to catch her breath. 'My favourite things are running and boxing. Daddy says running is good for my health. If I know boxing, I can beat up those trying to bully me,' she says, while hanging one of her marathon medals around the neck of her teddy bear.

Huimin's ambition is to win a gold medal in the 2016 Olympics, the first for which she would be old enough to qualify. But Hong Kong-based sports doctor Professor Patrick Yung, who is affiliated to the International Federation of Sports Medicine and the Hong Kong Sports Institute, worries that she will burn out - or worse - long before that.

'When you start to train as a kid, the problem will be over-use, injuries which can affect the musculo-skeletal system, like bone, soft tissue, ligaments and muscles,' he explains. As she is still growing, he worries that her growth plates will be affected and she could even end up with one leg longer than the other. 'When she gets to 10 or 11, she should start to menstruate, but long-term intensive training will affect her menarche, so that will be an immediate problem in two or three years' time,' he says.

Her father says he is doing all he can to keep her healthy. 'If injuries occur, we'll have to accept it. Walking on the street could get you into an accident. It's all fate.'

This combination of fatalism, determination and unconventional science is also found in the Chinese Olympic team itself. Zhou Chunxiu, who won the 2007 women's London Marathon, trains in the pleasant coastal town of Dalian, northeast of Beijing, alongside other Olympic hopefuls.

The 26-year-old's schedule is punishing. In the three months leading up to a major race she runs more than 200km a week. Her coach, Liang Song Li, says sometimes she runs more than 300km a week, twice the distance of other elite athletes. 'In winter the maximum was 340km a week,' he adds.

Zhou says: 'Before the London Marathon, I ran one marathon a day during the training. I was well prepared and trained hard. That's why I performed well in London. I trained intensively for three months, averaging 230-250km a week.' Yung says: 'It's amazing, Miss Zhou trains for almost 300 km per week. I'm really very, very worried. I think most elite athletes would suffer musculo-skeletal injuries or other problems even after just a few months of this kind of training.'

Zhou knows the fate of other Chinese female athletes who have ended up crippled and penniless in middle age. Under the Chinese system, she is employed by the state but is allowed commercial sponsorship. She has bought a house and is saving money, to ensure she will manage when her career is over.

'I've heard of the injury cases. I'd be lying if I say I'm not worried at all,' she said. 'But being in this position, I'm not allowed to think too much about the future. It's more important to do well in today's competition.'

Coach Liang believes such intensive training is the only way Zhou can beat physically bigger runners such as Paula Radcliffe. 'Europeans have more bone density and better muscle quality,' he said. 'They're born with better physical condition and their diet structure is better than ours. We must be willing to take on more hardship and more intensive training, enduring more pain than average people can ever imagine. Then we can beat all our rivals.' Conventional sports medicine suggests being small is not necessarily a disadvantage for long-distance runners.

Little Huimin sees Zhou as a role model and heroine. While in other countries, social services department might question whether such a lifestyle is suitable for a child, the local government in Hainan has encouraged her. Along the route to Beijing, she signs flags with Olympic mottos, like a minor celebrity.

'I run for the future. I want to be a champion. I want to win honour for the country,' says Huimin.

Lindsey Hilsum's film will be on Channel 4 News at 7pm, Monday 6th August 2007. This article first appeared in The Observer.

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