Archers representing China in the Olympics face the fact that they have been four-time runners-up over the years.

The prospects are not pleasing. China’s archery chief Zhou Yuan has admitted he does not expect too much from the Beijing Olympic Games.

Zhou Yuan said, ‘It’s a great hurdle to leap over on the road to an Olympic gold medal. Although we have the courage and confidence to compete the best, we have to admit that South Korea is much stronger.
‘To South Korea, archery is like table tennis to Chinese. They are dominant by large and unmatched worldwide. Most of the world records are handed down from South Koreans and Chinese archers always lose in key matches.
‘We lost to South Korea by only one point in women’s team at the Athens Olympics, and in Doha Asian Games last year, we were the victims again.
‘In Athens, I don’t think the one-point gap reflected the real strength of South Korea. They underperformed and we in contrast outperformed, so it came the slim difference.’

The situation remained the same at the Beijing Olympic trial in August. In the Olympic try-out, South Korea wrapped up all four disciplines from individual to team, leaving only the second places for other contestants. China’s best result came from Zhang Juanjuan, who was the only one in the China team to reach top eight. Our illustration shows Qian Jialing of China preparing to shoot during a women’s team event final of archery against Korea
Source: CRI English. com

Zhang Guozheng, 2004 Athens Olympic weightlifting champion, is at the center of a dramatic tug-of-war between China’s Yunnan and Shanxi provinces.

Zhang represented Yunnan Province during his gold medal win in Athens three years ago. Now he claims to represent Shanxi. Each province, in turn, has claimed Zhang as its own.

Winning an Olympic gold medal undoubtedly brings global glory for both an individual and his country. But in China, winning is also a big deal for the province, autonomous region or municipality where the athlete has registered.

In 1995, Zhang, who was actually born in Fujian Province, registered in Yunnan. Zhang’s victory in 2004 made him the first Olympic champion from that province, located in Southwest China.

Zhang decided to switch to Shanxi recently, claiming his contract with Yunnan had expired early this year, even though Yunnan insisted the rules allow it to retain the preferential rights to Zhang and extend the contract.

Ma Wenguang, Director of the Weightlifting, Wrestling and Judo Administrative Center said it is a technicality and not difficult to deal with. He said, ‘As long as both sides obey the rules, it’s not complicated to settle the dispute. We will announce the final decision soon.’
Source: China Daily

China is not looking to win the medal race at the Beijing Olympics. China came second to the United States in the gold medal standings in Athens in 2004 so it is possible, even probable, it could win the title as the world’s greatest sports power at its own Olympic Games.

But Sports Minister Liu Peng, a top Communist Party official, said a much more important measure of the success of the Beijing Games was whether they were well organized and other competing nations went away happy.

Liu Peng said, ‘We have never said that we will top the medal table in gold medals or in all medals at the Beijing Games. We have never set any targets like these. Gold medals are not the most important thing for the host nation. The most important thing is to make the 2008 Games a success and to make all the delegates from around the world satisfied.’

On the other hand failure in, for example, table tennis, would be considered not quite the article. Wang Nan and Zhang Yining, — both multiple world and Olympic champions — had no doubt that the country’s world supremacy would go unchallenged in their sport.

Wang said, ‘We are expecting to win. Coming second is failure for us and the team. As long as we don’t mess up ourselves, we’ll be okay, because nobody can beat us.’

Our picture shows Wang Nan and Zhang Yining as women’s doubles winners trophy at the world table tennis championships in Zagreb May 27, 2007. But South Korea has some amazing players who will be there fighting for a medal. Should be very interesting.

Here’s a time-line of China’s participation in the Olympics:

1932: Runner Liu Changchun is China’s sole athlete at the Summer Games in Los Angeles.
1936: Chinese athletes take part in the Berlin Games.
1948: The Chinese send seven athletes to London for the Olympics.
1952: The PRC sends athletes to Helsinki. They arrive after the Games have started and do not compete because the PRC does not belong to the sports federations as required for Olympic participation.
1979: China and the United States establish diplomatic relations.
1980: China sends 28 athletes to the Winter Games in Lake Placid, but they win no medals.
1984: Thirty-seven athletes go to the Winter Games in Sarajevo but bring no medals home. China is more successful at the Summer Games in Los Angeles. Chinese athletes win 15 gold, eight silver and nine bronze medals. Xu Haifeng is the first gold medalist for China, winning the men’s 50-meter pistol.
1988: At the Calgary Games, the Chinese win a gold and two bronze in short-track speedskating, a demonstration sport. At the Summer Games in Seoul, they win five gold, 11 silver and 12 bronze medals.
1992: Ye Qiaobo wins China’s first Winter Olympic medal, silver in women’s speed-skating (500 meters) in Albertville. (She wins a second silver in the 1,000. Li Yan wins silver for China in women’s 500 short-track.) In Barcelona, they win 54 medals — 16 gold, 22 silver and 16 bronze. The women’s swim team wins nine medals, including four gold. Lin Li wins three individual medals.
1993: Ma’s (coach Ma Junren) Family Army of female runners win the 1,500-meter race, sweep the 3,000 and take first and second in the 10,000 at the world championships.
1994: China sends 28 athletes to Lillehammer. They win one silver and two bronze medals.
1996: In Atlanta, China wins 16 golds, 22 silvers and 12 bronze. Table tennis players sweep all four golds. China is fourth in medals overall.
1998: In Nagano, China wins six silver and two bronze medals.
2000: At the Summer Games in Sydney, China is third in total medals. Divers win 10 medals, finishing 1-2 in men’s 10-meter platform and women’s 3-meter springboard. The badminton team claims four golds.
2002: In Salt Lake City, China wins two gold, three silver and three bronze medals.
2004: In Athens, China is third in total medals. The shooting and diving teams each takes nine medals. Lao Lishi wins gold in the women’s 10-meter synchronized platform with partner Li Ting and also takes silver in the 10-meter platform.
2006: At the Torino Winter Olympics, China wins 11 medals (two gold, four silver and five bronze).

Sources: Chinese Olympic Committee and USA Today

There is nothing like a list of statistics to help you get the Olympic Games into perspective. Here are some:

28 Olympic programs, 302 sub-categories.
302 gold medals.
10,500 athletes are expected to participate.
21,880 torchbearers will run 137,000 km over 130 days.
The National Stadium (now and for ever called the Bird’s Nest) covers an area of 258,000 sq. meters and has 91,000 seats.
The surface of the National Aquatics Center is covered by 1,437 pieces of transparent material.
The highest price for the opening ceremony tickets is RMB5,000, the lowest is RMB200.
Beijing expects 550,000 international visitors and 2.4 million domestic spectators.
Over 800 star-class hotels and 4,000 hostels will provide about 420,000 over-priced rooms.

If you have an established domicile in China you can try to get a ticket on the official Beijing Olympics website. Phase 1 has ended but in October 2007 there is a new chance.
Source: China Snippets