Gold medal at home renews China\'s undying Olympic dream

Tag : rolled bronze
Gold medal at home renews China's undying Olympic dream

Released : Saturday, August 09, 2008 8:02 AM
BEIJING, Aug 09, 2008 (Xinhua via COMTEX News Network) -- BySportswriter Bai Xu
When Chinese shooter Pang Wei mounted the champion podium, the22-year-old Olympic debutant was greeted with cheers and thunderousapplauses.
Children sang the national anthem loudly with their sweet voices.
Young people, holding a national flag, shouted togetherspontaneously "China, move on" after the awarding ceremony.
The reticent boy from Hebei province just won a gold medal in men's10-meter air pistol event on Saturday afternoon with absoluteadvantage.
His victory was reminiscent of the one 28 years ago, when XuHaifeng made history by shooting down the first-ever Olympic goldmedal in Los Angeles, also in pistol event.
However, few people were fortunate enough to watch the smile of the27-year-old champion in red-and-yellow sports wear, because at thattime, even black-and-white televisions were considered householdluxury and China's annual output of television was just 9.96million. News of Xu's victory at that time travelled byloudspeakers to plants, to schools and to the fields.
Even fewer people know that local Olympic committee hadn't gotenough Chinese national flags as Xu's teammate Wang Yifu, who isnow head coach of the Chinese shooting squad, nabbed the bronze.Reality version of the Hollywood blockbuster Speed was played inthe streets -- a motorcycle was racing to find another flag.
In fact, Olympics is a dream cherished by Chinese people over thecentury. It takes a long process to become clearer.
Maybe one has heard of the courage of Liu Changchun, the firstChinese and lonely warrior to take part in the sports gala.
The sprinter strode into Olympic arena in Los Angeles at about 2p.m. July 30, 1932, after a 25-day voyage from the Xingguang dockin Shanghai, where thousands gathered to bid him farewell.
Maybe some knows the pole of Fu Baolu, a Chinese athlete in polevault event to participate in the Berlin Olympics in 1936.
Couldn't afford a bamboo pole, the 22-year-old national recordholder had to borrow one from a Japanese jumper for competition.The Chinese team, composed of 69 members, performed to make aliving in Southeast Asia on their way to the Games.
And the score of Wu Chuanyu, the first Chinese athlete competing inOlympics after Liberation.
China didn't receive the invitation of the Helsinki Olympics in1952, until when it was just about hours before the openingceremony. When the Chinese 40-member team arrived, many events werefinished. Wu managed to compete in men's 100-meter backstroke,although his score, one minute and 12.3 seconds, failed to ensurethe swimmer, who later became China's first world champion, anymedal.
And the hat of Deng Xiaoping, which carried the symbol of Olympics.
Wearing it, the 86-year-old late Chairman inspected the Asian GamesVillage in 1990 and inscribed name for the national Olympics sportscenter, before asking sports officials "when are you ready to applyfor hosting the Olympics?"
They were discouraged on the early morning of September 24 1993,when the final result of 2000 Olympic host city rolled off the lipsof Juan Antonio Samaranch, then President of the InternationalOlympic Committee (IOC). China's first bidding for hosting theOlympics failed with a narrow disadvantage of just two votes less.
They anxiously waited on Beijing's Tian'anmen Square at the summernight of July 13 2000, again for the gray-haired IOC President toanswer the second knock of world's most populous nation at theOlympic gate. The crowd broke into hilarious celebration at thegood news, and pictures of ecstatic people carrying national flagsstormed front page of almost all newspapers' extra editions.
In 1908, the Tianjin Youth magazine posed three questions to allChinese people: When will China send athletes go to the Olympics?When will Chinese athletes win a gold medal? When will China bringthe Olympic Games to its own soil?
A hundred years later, when the spectacular opening ceremony washeld in the "bird nest", the last one of the three questions wasanswered.
But that's not enough.
Did we remember to give applause not only to those who made theirnames on the global arena, but those who dreamed and tried,although finally failed? Maybe they couldn't leave any traces onthe long scroll of sports history, but their sweat, their tears andtheir shouts also deserve our utmost respect.
Could we carry on the good habits we developed before the Olympics-- saving energy, protecting environment, be polite, noqueue-jumping...Olympics is the carnival of ourselves, and theseefforts should be done not as showing off, but for our own sake.
Don't forget the lesson we learnt from overseas torch relay.Different voices still exist given China's hiking economy andrising International status. But may the spirit of Olympic remindus all the time to let peace and friendship prevail.
Always remember the charity journey of Olympic flame after themassive earthquake, remember the smile of the boy saved from quakedebris who appeared at the opening ceremony. Even after the flameof Beijing Olympics extinguished, the love it brought forth shouldbe passed on.
The Olympic dream has been carried by generations of Chinese. Itsurvived hardships and despair.
The Beijing Olympics may be a climax.
But after that, it should also live on.
Copyright 2008 XINHUA NEWS AGENCY
Provider:
Comtex News Network / Xinhua News Agency
Keywords:
Sports News , Top World News , Asia , Central Asia , Eastern Asia , Far East , China , Olympics , Entertainment , Sports