China wants to finish first in Beijing and has left no stone unturned to achieve its objective. Even the US and the Russians are wary of the host, writes Kamesh Srinivasan.
The Chinese have spent billions of dollars and combined supreme manpower with path-breaking technology in their attempt to stage the ultimate Olympics in Beijing.
They may not have said so, but their goals are simple. The 1.33 billion people want to see Liu Xiang defend his 110-metre hurdles title and witness China rise to the top of the medals table with the best gold haul.
The face of Chinese sports, along with basketball player Yao Ming, high hurdler Liu Xiang has the current world record holder Dayron Robles of Cuba and a sore hamstring to grapple with in living up to the enormous expectations. But the gold is mandatory. No excuses please.
In comparison, by stretching the US with a 32-gold haul in Athens, the Chinese had shown that they were on the right track, and would be able to capitalise on the home advantage to accomplish the mission of being the best among 200 plus countries, on the greatest stage that sports has to offer. The pollution in the Beijing atmosphere may also play its part, though 17 billion dollars have been spent to purify the air.
From winning 15 gold medals and finishing fourth behind the US, Romania and Germany in the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 — after having stayed away in the 1960s and 1970s — China had slipped to the 11th place with only five gold medals in Seoul, following the return of the Soviet bloc after the boycott of the 1984 Games.
China was able to stay stable in the fourth place both in Barcelona and Atlanta with 16 gold medals.
In Sydney, a year before it was awarded the 2008 Games, China surged to the third place bagging 28 golds, before reaching striking distance — three gold medals — of the US in Athens. It has indeed been a brilliant passage for China in its quest for Olympic glory in the last two decades.
The Chinese, however, have been thoughtful to underplay their target, so as to avoid burdening their athletes with tremendous pressure. They have said that they were not a sporting nation and would be happy to top the second string of countries, behind the US and Russia that belong to a different league,
Interestingly, Joseph Capousek, a kayak coach from Germany, was reportedly sacked from the Chinese Olympic campaign for saying that the Chinese were desperate to finish first. Actually, it may be an honest observation considering that the Chinese do not have much of a say in athletics and swimming that offer 47 and 34 gold medals respectively. In fact, China has won only four gold medals in all in these two prime disciplines in the last two Olympic Games.
The trick is to strengthen its strong points, even as China quietly attempts to break fresh ground by training its athletes with the best of technology and coaches from around the world, so as to win 44 gold medals, as predicted by experts. A total of 302 gold medals are on offer in 262 events of 28 disciplines.
Among others, the Chinese synchronised swimming squad has Masayo Imura as the chief coach, the man who has helped the Japanese to eight Olympic medals over the years.
China has a 1099-member delegation for the Beijing Olympics, with 639 athletes, as compared to 407 in Athens and 311 in Sydney. The US will have 596 athletes fighting to retain its supremacy that it had achieved in the last three editions, though its gold medals have dipped from 44 to 38 to 35.
This trend also possibly indicates an exchange of position in favour of the Chinese on the latter’s home soil.
In the last edition, China had won six gold medals in diving, five in weightlifting, four in shooting and three each in badminton and table tennis. It had won two gold medals each in athletics and taekwondo, apart from one each in artistic gymnastics, judo, swimming, tennis, volleyball and wrestling,
Much in contrast, the US had won 12 gold medals in swimming and eight in athletics.
Two super athletes, Michael Phelps and Katie Hoff, are aiming to win eight and seven gold medals respectively for the US in swimming! Phelps, who won six gold medals in Athens, is once again attempting to break the record of seven gold medals won by Mark Spitz in the 1972 Games.
Quite fittingly, China is not averse to having more manpower to intensify its quest for the gold medals.
Even the US has conceded that the host would be the favourite to top the table, and that it was gearing up to meet the challenge.
The Russians are also aware that they would have to beat the host to emerge the champions, and have announced that they would aim to win one gold medal more than China.
The president of the International Olympic Committee, Dr. Jacques Rogge, has declared that he would not be surprised to see China on top of the heap in Beijing.
Being increasingly open to the outside world has had its share of problems, as the Chinese are faced with the allegation that two of their gymnasts — He Kexin and Jiang Yuyuan — are around 14 years of age, as against the Olympic eligibility criterion of 16 years that was laid down in 1997. No child labour please!
China has been quite serious about sporting a clean image, and has been pretty strict with its anti-doping measures. The projection is that it would rather win less gold medals than get trapped in a positive dope case.
The interesting point to see is whether China will be able to overcome the controversies and make its performance speak for itself.
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