Before the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, Chinese athletes had participated in three Olympic Games but won nothing. Since 1949, China has participated in six summer and seven winter Olympics, winning 112 gold medals in summer Olympics. At the Los Angeles, Barcelona and Atlanta Olympics, China came fourth in the gold medals table, and second at the Athens Olympics. At the 2004 Olympics, China took home 63 medals, 36 of them (57.1 percent of the total) being won by young athletes; 10 of the gold medal winners were under 20 years old. This demonstrates the increasing maturity of China's young athletes and growing overall strength in competitive sports. So what about Beijing Olympic Games? Will we take the place of USA to be 1st? I believe so absolutely!
