For love of the game |
西藏女孩追逐篮球梦 |
www.i21st.cn |
BY wangxingwei from 21st Century Published 2021-06-25 |
![]() Students at Nagqu No 2 Senior High School play basketball. XINHUA
Wearing wristbands with the names of LeBron James and Kobe Bryant written on them, 17-year-old Tibetan girl Cigla plays her favorite sport – basketball – at Nagqu No 2 Senior High School in Lhasa, Tibet autonomous region. Cigla comes from a poor herder’s family in northern Tibet’s Nagqu city. She now sets her mind on entering a sports college to study basketball. For her, studying in Lhasa, the region’s most developed city, has made it much easier for her to realize her basketball dream. With an average altitude of over 4,500 meters, Nagqu is among the most uninhabitable places in Tibet, known as the “roof of the world”. Low-oxygen environments and extreme weather have long compromised the health of Nagqu students, hampering the development of primary education in the area. “The students had barely played any sports due to limited sports facilities and frequent bad weather in Nagqu,” said Bachug, the school’s physical education (PE) teacher. However, in a bid to ensure equal access to quality education, the Tibet regional government has established several schools in Lhasa to recruit Nagqu students, according to China.org. Like Cigla, many Nagqu students are from poor farming and herding families. The school campuses in Lhasa have seven concrete basketball courts, a standard soccer field and a sports stadium. That gives students opportunities to train their bodies and find the sport that appeals to them. Basketball is one of the most popular sports among the girls at the school. According to Bachug, more than a quarter of the approximately 1,600 female students regularly practice the sport during PE classes or as extracurricular activities. In addition, basketball competitions between classes are regularly held to draw more girls to the sport. Dawa Droma, a senior at the school, said her passion for the sport started from her first basketball game in her freshman year. “I had never touched a basketball before that game but joined the class team anyway. When I scored and heard my classmates cheer for me, I couldn’t feel more proud. That’s how I fell in love with basketball and never looked back,” she recalled. Reflecting on the influence of basketball on her life, Dawa Droma said the sport has helped her get fit and build up confidence over the years. “Meeting players from different schools has certainly made me a more outgoing person,” she said. With a great passion for the sport, Dawa Droma hopes to carry on her connection with basketball in the future. ![]() (Translator & Editor: Wang Qianrong AND Luo Sitian)
https://www.i21st.cn/story/3700.html |