China’s Gold Medal Potential

Cui Dalin, deputy director general of General Administration of Sport in China, confirmed at a recent press conference: “It is estimated that a record 550 to 570 Chinese athletes will compete at the Beijing Olympics.”

China first fully competed in the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984, when the 15 gold medals it won gave the country a fourth world ranking. Twenty years later at the Athens Olympics, China won 32 gold medals, beating Russia and giving it a world second ranking. Shooting, diving, table tennis, badminton, weightlifting, gymnastics and judo are now the Olympic events that the world expects China to win.

As regards the questions on everyone’s lips –– how many gold medals will China win at the 2008 Beijing Olympics? and will it surpass the 32-medal record it set in Athens? –– Cui Dalin remains low-key. He is candid in his opinion that China lags far behind the U.S., and that there is also a yawning gap between it and Russia.

There are currently 1,300 Chinese athletes making intensive preparations for the Olympics.

Maintain Glory in Forte Events

Diving

The China Diving Team has won a total 20 gold medals at six Olympic Games meets. It also took nine of the ten gold medals at the World Swimming Championships in March 2007. The team has won China more gold medals than any other. Zhou Jihong, leader of the China Diving Team, nevertheless worries that the women’s springboard diving performance may fail to make gold. Yet 27-year-old Guo Jingjing easily won the women’s individual springboard and women’s synchronized springboard medals at the September 2007 National Diving Championships, deemed an Olympic trial. Among the members of the Men’s Diving Team are Olympic champions Peng Bo and Hu Jia, and three new stars -- Qin Kai, He Chong and Zhang Xinhua -- who spectacularly distinguished themselves at the 2007 World Swimming Championships. Despite Zhou Jihong’s misgivings, prospects for the China Diving team seem bright.

Table Tennis & Badminton

China has won 16 out of the total 20 table tennis gold medals since the game was listed as an Olympic Sports Event in 1988. Most top players in the China Table Tennis Team competed in the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Professional Tour in Sweden of November 2007. Twenty-five-year-old Wang Hao won the men’s singles championship and also took the men’s doubles gold medal, in partnership with Ma Long. Rising star Li Xiaoxia, born in 1988, won the women’s singles championship. Li currently has a number four ITTF world ranking.

Since Danish Tine Rasmussen’s victory in the 2007 Yonex Open Japan Super, when she beat four Chinese players to win the women’s badminton singles championship, the China Women’s Badminton Team has been pessimistic about its chances of winning an Olympic gold medal.

Gymnastics

As the China Gymnastics Team brought back only one gold medal from the Athens Olympics, it acknowledges considerable room for improvement. “We must gather all our strength when we compete in Beijing in order to surpass recent achievements at the World Gymnastics Championships in Germany and Denmark,” said Gao Jian, director of National Gymnastics Center. The China Gymnastics Team took five gold, two silver and one bronze medal at the 2007 World Gymnastics Championships in Stuttgart, Germany. The China Gymnastics Team is currently in the thick of vital comprehensive winter training. “Heightening arduousness and honing athletic skills are the keynotes of winter training, especially now that there is no ceiling on the former,” said Huang Yubin, head coach of the China Gymnastics Team.

Judo & Weightlifting

China beat Cuba in the women’s 2007 Beijing World Judo Team Championships. This was the first time the China judo team won a title on the world stage. Their previous best results were two bronze medals at world events. Athens Olympics champion 32-year-old Xian Dongmei will compete once more in the 2008 Olympic women’s title Judo championships. “Xian was far from her peak at the Athens Olympics, but is currently working to achieve physical, technical and mental perfection” is one insider’s observation. Xian’s reappearance at the Olympics, however, indicates the lack of new talent within the China Judo Team.

Weightlifting is one of China’s most optimistic 2008 gold prospects, particularly in view of China’s winning 22 gold medals and ranking first at the 2007 World Weightlifting Championships in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The first gold medal China expects to win in 2008 is the women’s 48kg weightlifting, in which three of the Chinese contenders are capable of lifting 210 kg.

Shooting

Olympics title-holder Zhu Qinan ranked first in the men’s 10m air rifle event at the Sixth National City Games in Wuhan of October 2007, and also broke the world record by 703.7 points.


New Glories

China has paid increasing attention to scientific research into athletic potential in recent years.

Liu Xiang, who bettered the men’s 110m hurdle record and won the World Championship in 2007, is one example of the benefits of scientific monitoring. “Liu Xiang currently has 30 sports and medical experts working on him, besides his coach,” confirms the principal of the Science and Education Department, General Administration of Sport in China. It was powerful scientific research that enabled Liu Xiang to conquer the inherent “yellow race” physical disadvantages that hitherto impeded victory and win the men’s 110m hurdles.

Sports scientific research became a valuable aspect of Liu Xiang’s training early in 2004. During his preparations for this event, scientific research personnel made a follow-up shoot on his daily training and races. Detailed technical analysis and effective planning helped Liu Xiang to resolve his technical weaknesses in time for the Olympics.

French star player Ladji Doucoure was Liu Xiang’s arch rival at the Athens Olympics, having equaled Liu’s best record in the semifinal. But after analyzing Doucoure’s match video, the findings of scientific research personnel were that the French athlete’s muscles were in an early state of fatigue, and that he had little chance of ultimate victory. This observation greatly eased Liu’s mental pressure, and he went on to win the first men’s athletics gold medal in China’s Olympic history.

China annually spends RMB 20 million on sports scientific research. There are more than 3,000 operatives in the 2008 Beijing Olympics Human Resources. Their principal work is assisting coaches pinpoint problems in training techniques and finding scientific solutions to them.

Since the 2004 Athens Olympics, China has taken on 50 or more foreign coaches for 21 Olympic events. The fresh training concepts and management methods they have introduced have perceptibly enhanced team levels.

China is favorite to win the women’s softball medal at the Beijing Olympics. The China Softball Team, currently at a world fourth ranking, invited US Michael Bastian to be the team’s head coach in 2006.

Kim Chang Bak was appointed head coach of the China Women’s Hockey Team in 1999. The Korean took the team to fourth position at the last Olympics and was instrumental in its winning the hockey championship at the 2006 Asian Games. His compatriot, Kim Sangryul, leads the China Men’s Hockey Team. It beat India and Pakistan, losing to the ROK in the final of the 2006 Asian Games.

Moreover, the China Synchronized Swimming Team has invited Masayo Imura, Japan’s “godmother” of synchronized swimming, to be head coach of the team. Her skills were apparent in the results of the 2007 World Swimming Championships in Melbourne. Twin sisters Jiang Wenwen and Jiang Tingting came fourth in the Duet Competition –– the best result ever for the China Synchronized Swimming Team.

Meng Guanliang and Yang Wenjun, under the guidance of Polish coach Marek Plock, won the final of the men’s C2 500m race at the Athens Olympic regatta. This was China’s first ever canoeing gold. Plock’s successor, Joseph Secker from Germany, has high hopes of breaking his 17-Olympic-Gold record.

Lithuanian coach Igor Grinko led the Chinese team in winning its first gold medal for the men’s k-4 1,000m. “Water sports are now regarded as having high gold-winning potential,” said Cui Dalin.

China is doing its utmost to maintain excellence and overcome shortcomings. Chinese players have shone in 2007 world sports events, often for the first time. This new glory reinforces hopes that China’s gold medal tally in 2008 will be its best yet.