Laureus recognition not applicable for all

Nominations for the 2014 Laureus World Sports Awards were revealed last week, with no -Chinese athletes being -considered for any award.

Held to recognize excellence in sporting achievement, Laureus generally hands out seven trophies every year, including for world sportsman, sportswoman and team, and for best comeback, breakthrough. In addition, there is an action award, and one for best sportsperson with a disability, along with three discretionary awards such as Lifetime Achievement.

The inaugural awards were in Monaco in 2000; this year the ceremony is to be held in Kuala Lumpur in late March.

Although scores of excellent sports people have been recognized by Laureus, -China's -athletes have only been victorious three times.

In 2009, China's -Olympic Team won, and in 2007, -hurdler Liu Xiang was awarded Newcomer of the Year (now breakthrough). This award was also given to basketball player Yao Ming in 2003.

China's Grand Slam winner Li Na, swimmer Ye Shiwen, runner Xing Huina and -China's national table tennis team have also been nominated.

Compared to the amount of gold medals China wins in international sporting events, this proves that most Chinese athletes have a low international profile.

As an award initially selected by 700 leading sports editors, writers and broadcasters from 70 countries and regions, Laureus normally focuses on high-profile, mainstream sports, such as athletics, soccer, -tennis, golf and Formula One. But -China is not traditionally strong in these fields.

China has excelled in sports like table tennis, badminton, gymnastics and diving, never the most influential disciplines on the world stage.

In the past China chose to preferentially develop certain sports under its "whole nation system," in order to maximize the chance to win medals. Mainstream or professional sports like F1 operate differently and sometimes require grass-roots support to develop.

While the government realized the importance of development in all sporting fields, this will take time. It's more difficult to win in mainstream sports, so China will have to wait longer to dominate at Laureus.

But China does not really need this recognition, in the same way that the nation's film directors don't need to strive for Oscar glory.

As part of the world, China should care about this, but it is not the be-all and end-all.

It will be better for China to use its power to promote its sports stars to the world and help advance the status of those sports Chinese people are good at.