Sports business carved out by fortune?

"When I got tired, I slept. When I got hungry, I ate. When I had to go, you know, I went." It could be the life philosophy of Chen Zhengrong, owner of a sports firm in Qingyang, a small city in Northwest China's Gansu Province.

Chen goes for jog almost every morning. He is always joined by a group of people just like Forest Gump is. However, he was alone in jogging in the small city about 20 years ago.

"My body has memories," said Chen. "I have to go back and live in my hometown where I grew up." In 1997, 35-year-old Chen suspended his business in Tianjin and returned home.

"I've always loved sports since I was a kid," said Chen. "I just wanted to come back and make fun from sports, but I found no one cared about sports in my hometown. The locals were ignorant about it."

Chen recalled that the locals looked so bored that they were either getting wasted by drinking or getting bankrupt by gambling. So he vowed to bring changes to his hometown and started doing his bit to attract people to sports.

FIRST CHANCE

Chen got his first chance when the State General Administration of Sports started to focus on public sports and ran the first fitness club on the top floor of Qingyang Sports Bureau. "It was free to have fitness training at my club," said Chen. "But how could I make ends meet? I ran fitness clinics."

After first taste of success, Chen made a stride in sports business and signed a 20-year contract with Qingyang Sports Bureau for renting a basketball court at a cost of 62,000 U.S. dollars in 2003.

"I changed it into a badminton club. As badminton requires lots of exercises but fewer people, my club might have a better chance," said Chen.

However, things did not go according to his plan. "It doesn't cost much to play badminton," said Chen. "But people would rather drink and gamble."

Chen said the venue was always empty and he felt lonely in the vast space of an empty gym. The first contract year brought him a loss of 1,600 U.S. dollars and even made Chen think about quitting for a moment.

FAST TRACK

Beijing's successful bid for the 2008 Summer Olympics became the turning point as the Olympics ignited the zeal for sports throughout the country, including Qingyang. Having heard of Chen about his sports enthusiasm, a regional mobile company in Qingyang asked him to help organize a badminton competition, which brought Chen his first bucket of gold.

Chen recalled, after that competition, sports "zeal" erupted in his small hometown, 1,300 kilometers away from the capital city of Beijing.

From then on, Chen's sports business was on a fast track. He frequently hosted various sports competitions. Meanwhile, he worked as a coach for almost all sports in the city. Chen loves the title of "Coach Chen." "Almost every badminton player, Ping Pong player and swimmer here was my student," he said.

Lu Wenliang, former sports chief of Qingyang, said Chen has his little trick to attract customers. "After each competition, Chen offered free training in his sports club to a dozen of participants. If a certain amount of those participants become sports fans, they would not stop partaking in sports and eventually became Chen's club members."

In Chen's plain idea, having more people in sports means having fewer people drinking and gambling. "Sport is not something only with the Sports Authorities," said Chen. "It is everybody's job."

"You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life," said Rocky Balboa in the film Rocky. "But it ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and moving forward. That's how winning is done." Chen got hit by his financial burden, got hit by people's ignorance, but he moved forward. This is how Chen won his sports business back.

FLOURISHING BUSINESS

In order to meet people's growing demand for physical fitness and commemorate the success of the Beijing Olympic Games, Aug. 8 was approved by the Chinese government as the "National Fitness Day", which unfold a vigorous mass campaign for sports and physical training.

As one of the earliest providers of popular physical fitness services, Chen led the pace in Qingyang, but he would rather attribute his success to a rescue in Yellow River in 2009.

It was on a Lunar New Year evening when Chen jumped into the freezing Yellow River and rescued a drowning girl.

Chen Ge, 23, daughter of Chen Zhengrong, recalled the incident. "I could not forget that evening. It was freezing. When I was walking with my cousins, I noticed a woman drowning in the Yellow River. No adult was around so I called my father and he hurried here and rescued that woman."

"My father is a sports hero to me at that time, I could hardly imagine he would not be able to do this," said Chen Ge. "But if it happened today, I might not call my father." She said she felt spine shivering casting her mind to that cold night.

Chen Zhengrong never told his daughter he was also scared afterwards. "I overheard that 80 percent of people died from trying to save others in the Yellow River, but I got lucky." Chen said his good deeds brought him fortune and helped him become successful in later days.

"After 2009, I've never worried about not having customers. We provide trainings and host competitions. We can attract people to come to work out. Once they started, they could not help themselves from continuing," said Chen, adding his sports business can make an annual profit of about 300,000 U.S. dollars.

"Today, sports fans will have to book in advance to have sports training during weekends and holidays," said Chen, who no longer feel lonely in his gym and is planning to open more sports clubs in the city. Enditem (Wang Heng also contributes to the story