STRONG and VITAL No 5

Nadia Comaneci, now 63, is the owner of a Gymnastics Academy with her husband. Time hardly seems to have passed for her. Age has not taken the joy out of training; her movements are still smooth, harmonious, and elegant. From time to time, the former top athlete plays music and films herself performing her exercises.

The Olympic champion has published two books:

Letters to a Young Gymnast (2011) The author shows what it takes to achieve spor ting perfection and become the best. With dra matic stories from her own experience, she tells how the young girl was discovered in a Romanian primary school and found the inner strength to become a world-class athlete at such a young age. This collection of memo ries, anecdotes, and advice provides unique insights into the mind of a top athlete—and rai ses the question of how to live after you have realized your dream.

“I always wanted to create something crazy that no one had ever done before.” NADIA, Autobiography (1981) One of the world’s best gymnasts describes her childhood and training, her quest to become a world-class athlete, her stunning .victory at the Olympic Games in Montreal, and her private life.

“Love what you do, be passionate, enjoy every day, learn from the journey, and just congratulate yourself that you play sports, because that’s important.”

China Raises Retirement Age From January 2025

China has approved an increase in the retire ment age, accelerating a revision of decades old laws to counter the economic pressures of a shrinking labour force. The retirement age in China is currently one of the lowest in the world.

The increase in the retire ment age will be gradual and will take 15 years to be fully implemented. In China, the autho rities predict that the number of over-60s will rise from 280 mil lion to over 400 million by 2035, equivalent to the combined popula tion of the UK and the

Reforms are urgently needed as life expectancy in China has risen from around 44 years in 1960 to 78 years in 2021 and is expected to reach over 80 years by 2050. At the same time, due to the demographic winter, the labour force needed to care for the elderly is shrinking. If the population continues to decline, the decrease in the labour force will accelerate and further impair economic growth. A longer working life will ease the pressure on pension budgets, as many Chinese provinces are already struggling with large deficits. The retirement age will be raised from 60 to 63 for men and from 55 to 58 for women in white-collar occupations. For women in blue-collar occupations, it will be raised from 50 to 55. The changes are to come into force on 1 January 2025.

US. Without further reforms to the pension sys tem, by 2035 the money is likely to run out. In addition, there are fewer births, as younger peo ple are deciding not to have children due to the high costs. At the end of 2022, the country had 850,000 fewer people than in the previous year for the first time — a turning point from population growth to decline. The burden of financing the pensions of older people will therefore be distributed among a smaller group of younger workers.

Strong and Vital No. 5

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