The LONDON TIMES has an account of training techniques by the Chinese that we really hope is a massive exaggeration. But if it is true, it wouldn’t surprise us.

The tale comes from a Dutch rowing coach named Diederik de Boorder, who was coach of the Holland women’s rowing team who won the bronze medal in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. He tells the Times of his bizarre experiences as a coach in China’s Henan province.

de Boorder says training for the Chinese means working the body beyond exhaustion, every single day. And that “their whole approach to food was the opposite of the Western approach. They would eat chicken heads but not the breast, and pigs’ trotters but not the pork.”

Chicken heads and pig’s feet - it can’t get worse than that, right? Actually, it does.

de Boorder: “Every morning, after working out, they would have a soup from a big pot with 10-12 bulls’ penises in. They would also eat the bulls’ testicles. This was for the men; the women had something different. They were also obsessed with antlers - again, for soup. It cost €1,000 (about £750) for a kilo of antler and I remember one delivery of 12kg.“

Bull Penis Soup? If the Chinese dominate the Bejing Games, Olympic officials will probably cook up a test for traces of it in athletes very soon. Especially seeing as the screening is likely already taking place at one prominent competition.