CHINA:In the latest dangerous feat of endurance by a child in China, a 10-year-old girl went on a three-hour river swim in a tributary of the Yangtze river with her limbs bound as part of an effort to get into the Guinness Book of Records.
Huang Li's father tied her hands with string and bound her feet together with cloth, then watched as she swam in the chilly waters near Changsha, Mao Zedong's hometown, in the central China river to help her achieve her dream of swimming across the English Channel.
"Next time, she will swim further and I'll follow her in a boat to ensure safety," her father, Huang Daosheng, reported.
He is a teacher who enjoys swimming, and is also his daughter's coach.
"She asks me every day, 'Can I achieve this? Is the English Channel wide? Are the waves really big'?" Mr Huang said.
Huang Li, a fourth-grader from Sangzhi county in the city of Zhangjiajie, was a swimming prodigy who got the idea after she saw something similar on TV.
She swam by moving her body like a dolphin, occasionally paddling with her bound hands. Her face was blue with cold when she was pulled out. "It's dangerous to swim with bound limbs. What if she had muscle cramps and drowned?" an outraged student surnamed Gao said.
The story comes one month after eight-year-old Zhang Huimin ran 3,560km (2,212 miles), nearly the whole length of China, in a series of marathons and has rekindled debate about whether these stunts count as admirable patriotic spirit or simple child abuse.
Zhang's father was forced to deny accusations of abuse levelled by domestic media and some experts, who said the exercise regime would damage the girl's body and affect her growth.
China is gripped by Olympics fever ahead of the Beijing games in August next year, and stunning new feats of athleticism are reported nearly every day.
