China’s discipline leaves lasting legacy as curtain comes down
Filed Under Shower Curtain | Posted on August 24, 2008
It has well and truly arrived as a sporting super-power as its position at the top of the medal table shows.
A tally of 51 gold medals was comfortably ahead of anyone else, and almost three times as many as Great Britain - which finished fourth on the table. The United States exactly replicated its gold medal count of both 2004 and 2000 with 36, enough for it to top the table at those Olympiads, but not even close here.
One of the most noticeable features of China’s medal tally was the relatively small number of silver and bronze medals it won. Over half of the medals were gold, compared with less than a third for their two closest challengers, the United State and Russia. As far as the Chinese were concerned, it was gold or nothing.
The host obviously targeted sports where multiple medals were on offer, winning nine golds in gymnastics, eight in weightlifting and seven in diving. However, it also won golds for the first time in boxing and sailing.
It’s hard not feel some sympathy for London, which must follow these games with the 2012 event.
Quite how it will replicate the astounding discipline which galvanised tens of thousands of mainly voluntary participants in the opening and closing ceremonies and everywhere in between remains open to question. Certainly, the English way is more relaxed than regimented and there are also around seven million fewer residents to call on compared with Beijing.
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