How to build a world-renowned sports city in Shanghai? Committee members suggest expanding the development channels of champions to promote fitness for all
The “2024 Global Sports City Index” released by Shanghai University of Sport shows that New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris, and Tokyo rank top five in the global sports city comprehensive ranking, with Shanghai ranking 30th.
“Compared with the development goals of globally renowned sports cities, there are still some difficulties and deficiencies in Shanghai’s sports development, such as the cultivation of sports industry talents and the supply of sports services, which remain weak. We should leverage Shanghai’s economic and social development environment to promote the upgrading of the sports industry and allow sports stars to play a leading role in promoting national fitness, especially the vigorous development of youth sports,” said Huang Shaoxing, a member of the Shanghai Political Consultative Conference and the chairman of Shanghai Gaoyi Investment Co., Ltd, in an interview with The Paper.
With the 2025 Shanghai Political Consultative Conference and People’s Congress around the corner, 15 political consultative conference members including Huang Shaoxing plan to jointly submit a proposal on “Strengthening the Cultivation of Shanghai Sports Talents to Promote the Construction of a World-renowned Sports City.”
In this joint proposal, the members propose:
Building a talent pool for Shanghai sports talents. Technology can help optimize the training mode of sports talents. Through big data analysis and artificial intelligence technology, athletes’ training data can be deeply explored to provide personalized training programs and promote the level of competitive sports. Based on the current training of sports talents, efforts should be made to focus on strengthening the cultivation of talents in sports industry planning, sports statistics, and sports entertainment management to form a dynamic talent ecosystem.
Expanding diverse channels for the growth and development of champion talents. Leveraging the characteristics of Shanghai’s higher sports colleges and universities with Shanghai University of Sport as the core, utilizing the professional advantages of comprehensive universities’ higher education, vigorously creating a curriculum system that adapts to Shanghai’s sports development characteristics and innovation trends,引进 “champion talents” through various forms of reading, and promoting the permanent residence of “champion talents” in Shanghai through business cooperation. Strengthening international exchanges, actively learning from international advanced experience, introducing international top talents to participate in teaching and training, and enhancing the level of scientific and technological innovation and application. Sports colleges and universities need to timely update and improve teaching philosophies, methods, and technologies, striving to improve their academic rankings globally.
Meanwhile, actively exploring innovative business models with local characteristics in Shanghai, supporting the cultivation and development of top sports operation companies, and planning the layout of the sports economy industry with an international perspective. Focus on discovering and挖掘 excellent potential sports champions and stars, actively building champion IP, and enriching youth sports and national fitness.
Huang Shaoxing added that to promote the construction of Shanghai as a world-renowned sports city, we can also consider the clustering effect of the integration of the Yangtze River Delta. Apart from government guidance and public demand, we can encourage professional and well-funded investment companies to participate, promoting the prosperity and development of mass sports.
