At the beginning of the founding of New China, the Central Committee of the New Democratic Youth League was responsible for the national sports work. 1952 In July and August, Rong Gaotang, vice chairman and secretary general of the All-China Sports Federation, led a sports delegation from China to Helsinki, Finland, to participate in the 15th Olympic Games, which was the first time since the founding of New China. After returning, the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League submitted a report to the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League and Liu Shaoqi, suggesting that the State Sports Affairs Committee should be established under the special committee, parallel to the ministries and commissions, and that "the chairman of the Committee should be a general like He Long (1896- 1969, Sangzhi, Hunan, the founding marshal)".
At that time, He Long was also secretary of the Central Southwest Bureau, vice chairman of the Southwest Military and Political Committee and commander of the Southwest Military Region. But as soon as he received the appointment of the director of the State Sports Commission, he devoted himself to this work with great enthusiasm.
1954 In September, at the First National People's Congress, He Long was appointed as Vice Premier of the State Council, Vice Chairman of the National Defense Commission and Director of the State Sports Commission. Soon, the State Council appointed Cai Tingkai, Cai, Lu Han, Huang Qixiang and Rong Gaotang as deputy directors of the State Sports Commission. The Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee approved Zhang Feigui as the Secretary General of the State Sports Commission and Huang Zhong as the Deputy Secretary General.
Xue Ming (Mrs. He Long) later recalled: "He Long was very satisfied with the team of the State Sports Commission and liked it very much. In his words: from all corners of the country, a United team. They get along very kindly and naturally, forming a fist. "
Building Beijing Gymnasium
There are few stadiums left in old China. In Beijing, except for the Xiannongtan Stadium built by 1937, there is not a stadium, not even a basketball court with stands. After careful study, He Long and other leading comrades of the State Sports Commission decided to build a gymnasium with relatively complete facilities and advanced equipment in Beijing, which was supported by the State Council.
Rong Gaotang and Huang Zhong traveled all over Beijing and finally found a clearing on the east side of the Temple of Heaven. They reported to He Long: "The land has been found, but we have no construction strength and know nothing about architecture." Then, He Long thought of Wan Li, then vice mayor of Beijing. Wan Li was a member of the Finance and Economics Committee of the Southwest Military and Political Committee, and organized the urban construction of Chongqing. Wan Li was away on business at that time. He Long immediately called him to build the Beijing Gymnasium. Wan Li returned to Beijing the next day after receiving the call. Soon, He Long transferred Zhang Yisu, who had participated in the construction of the Great Hall of the People in Chongqing, to assist Wan Li.
Beijing Gymnasium, with a total construction area of 33,000 square meters, was designed by Beijing Design Institute and constructed by Datong Company. He Long only gave them a one-year construction period. The designers worked overtime, and it took only three months to draw various drawings of the gymnasium. He Long not only personally examined the drawings, but also made specific comments on the style of sofas and coffee tables used in the museum. Thousands of workers involved in the construction work hard and have no rest on holidays. During the construction process, He Long often went to the construction site to visit engineers and workers and said to them, "This project is the first gymnasium built by the Beijing Municipal Sports Commission. It must be built on time. The central government and many departments in Beijing support you and ask people for money. " After more than a year of intense construction, Beijing Gymnasium was completed in April 1955.
Create a sports newspaper
While building stadiums, He Long also grasped the founding of Sports Daily. He Long believes that in order to attract sports talents and establish sports institutions at all levels in new China, it is important to publicize the significance of sports to the national economy and people's livelihood in a big way, so as to arouse the attention and enthusiasm of leaders at all levels and the masses for sports work; Vigorously publicize the principles and policies of China * * * Production Party on sports work, and call on all sectors to support sports work. To do this, the sports front should have its own newspaper.
At the beginning of 1958, He Long specifically asked Zhou Enlai for instructions on this issue. Zhou Enlai said, "Our country is so big that we need a sports newspaper. You write a report to the Central Committee! " In early April, the State Sports Commission wrote a report to the Central Committee and the State Council, which was presented by He Long as Zhou Enlai. In late June, the Central Committee approved the establishment of Sports Daily by the State Sports Commission. He Long asked Mao Zedong to write a title for Sports Daily, and Zhu De wrote an inscription.
On September 1958, 1, the first issue of Sports Daily was delivered to He Long, who immediately read it happily. The next morning, He Long called the newspaper to congratulate him. He Long pointed out that newspapers are the mouthpiece, so we should go forward bravely and spur our work. "We should boldly do it and make Sports Daily a newspaper of 600 million people." . Since then, Sports Daily has become a must-read newspaper in He Long. He usually reads Sports Daily in the evening. Once you find any progress or mistakes, call the person in charge of the newspaper and give timely praise and guidance. With the care and support of He Long, New Sports magazine and China Sports magazine (English publications) were founded.
Recruit talents without sticking to one pattern.
He Long believes that to create first-class performance, first-class talents are necessary. In the early days of the State Sports Commission, there was a serious shortage of technical talents. There is a shortage of coaches in almost every sport, and there are only a handful of excellent athletes. Therefore, He Long boldly selected a group of excellent coaches and athletes with the mind, boldness and courage of proletarian revolutionaries, and quickly established a sports team in New China.
He Long has United a large number of domestic sports talents and attracted many overseas sports talents to return to China to serve the motherland. With the efforts of He Long, the State Sports Commission and relevant departments of various provinces and cities, around 1954, the national football team, basketball team, table tennis team, track and field team, tennis team, gymnastics team and swimming team have been enriched one after another.
Unique management method
He Long has been leading troops for a long time, knowing that an army must have high political consciousness, excellent military technology, tenacious fighting style and strict organizational discipline if it wants to have strong fighting capacity. Similarly, if a sports team wants to beat its opponents in the competition and achieve good results, especially in international competitions where strong players gather, it must be "excellent in thinking, excellent in technology and excellent in style". Therefore, He Long draws lessons from the management methods of the army and strives to cultivate all sports teams into world-class sports teams.
In the training of athletes, He Long advocated that the difficulty of training should greatly exceed the difficulty of competition, so as to give full play to athletes' skills and compete with the top players in the world. He Long summed up the "Three Obediences" principle of PLA military training (that is, starting from difficulty, strictness and actual combat) and "heavy exercise training" as the "Three Obediences and One Big" principle, and applied it to basic training and special training of athletes, and achieved remarkable results. Later, on the basis of summing up experience, the slogan of "three fears" (fear of hardship, difficulty and injury) and "five excellences" (five excellences in thought, body, technology, training and competition) was further put forward. He Long particularly emphasized against "arrogance" and "focus". He said: "We must constantly sweep away arrogance in order to make continuous progress. This issue is very important for sports teams. " "Athletes should practice Song Wu instead of becoming Lin Daiyu. We should dare to compete with strong players and beat the top teams in the world. We should be stiff, bold and careful. We must have both the ability to fight tigers and the ability to embroider. "