Yang Wenjun, right, and Meng Guanliang won a canoeing gold medal in 2004, but Yang wishes he could retire.

By JULIET MACUR

FENGCHENG, China - As a reward for winning an Olympic gold medal in flatwater canoeing four years ago, Yang Wenjun - the son of peasant rice farmers - was handed the deed to a three-bedroom apartment here in a neighborhood called Sunny City.
The local government bought and decorated it, hanging giant scrolls in the living room that announce in Mandarin: “Yang Wenjun won gold in the Olympics. It brings good luck here. But his mother, Nie Chunhua, said Yang had been anything but lucky. She wiped away tears with hands dark and swollen from farming.
“If I had better economic condition, I would not like him to do sports, Ms. Nie, 49, said this spring. “Every time I think about him training, I feel so sad that my heart hurts. For him, and for me, there is so much pain.
Mr. Yang, one of China’s most successful water sports athletes, has never lived in his apartment. He has not seen his parents in three years. At 24, he lives 400 kilometers away at his sport’s training center, where he is preparing for the Beijing Olympics.
Mr. Yang said he could not stand his life.
For nearly a decade, he has tried to quit canoeing, he told The New York Times during an interview at the training center. He said he would rather attend college or start a business, but acknowledged that he was illequipped to do either one.
Many Chinese sports schools focus on training at the expense of education. Critics, like the former Olympic diving coach Yu Fen, are calling for changes. They say athletes are unprepared to leave the sports system that has raised them.
“I do not want to work as an athlete, but as an athlete here I have no freedom to choose my future, Mr. Yang said, speaking through the team’s official interpreter. “As a child, I didn’t learn anything but sport, and now what do I do? I can’t do anything else. I have my own dreams, but it is very difficult. I don’t have the foundation to make them come true.
Officials refused to let Mr. Yang retire, even after he won Olympic gold in the C-2 500-meter race with Meng Guanliang at the Athens Games in 2004. He described how they had threatened to withhold his retirement payment if he did not compete through the Beijing Games.
“It is not possible to survive without those benefits, said Yang .
Pressure to remain an athlete weighs on him. His father and sister received well-paying jobs because of his celebrity. His mother stopped working. They all moved into Yang’s apartment from their two-room cottage.
But Mr. Yang, who trains seven hours every day, is sick of the exhaustion from canoeing, he said.
Marek Ploch, a Polish-Canadian who is his coach, knows how much Mr. Yang wants out.
“He doesn’t care about the achievement, Mr. Ploch said. “We just count the days to the Olympic Games. After that, it is possible, maybe, for him to relax until the end of his life.
Government studies have shown that retired athletes - even former champions - often have trouble making ends meet.
Ai Dongmei, a former Beijing Marathon champion, sold popcorn and clothing on the street.
Zou Chunlan, a former national champion weight lifter, scrubbed backs in a bathhouse; she said a coach had given her steroids that produced side effects like facial hair and a deep voice. The All China Women’s Federation later helped her open a laundry.
“There are many athletes like me who never get the help, Ms. Zou said by telephone. We are left uneducated, unable to have children and destroyed by a system that told us it would take care of us forever.
Yu Fen’s diving program at the prestigious Tsinghua University is proving that athletes can juggle high-level training with conventional schoolwork.
As many as 40 divers, ages 7 to 19, train there while attending an on-campus school full time. Five of Yu’s proteges, including the Olympic favorite Guo Jingjing, are on the national team.
“It is impossible for every child to be an Olympic gold medal winner, and I want parents to understand that children must have education to fall back on, Yu said.
For Yang, changes to the sports system may come too late.
He plans to retire in August.
“He’s a rare talent, and that’s good and bad for him, Mr. Ploch, his coach, said. “He could win another gold medal. He’s also good enough to compete until 2012.