China: Decoding their most successful campaign at the Olympics
Sports fans from all over the world have their eyes on the calendar as the 2024 Paris Olympics will get underway on July 26. A total of 184 countries will participate in the multi-sport tournament with 329 gold medals being at stakes. China is among the most successful nations in the history of the event. Let's decode their best campaign in Olympics.
100 medals in 2008 Beijing Games
As per Wikipedia, China's best campaign came at the 2008 Beijing Games. They hosted the event that year and the home crowd had a lot to celebrate. China registered 100 medals that year out of which 48 were gold. The tally also includes 22 silver and 30 bronze medals. Only United States (112) recorded more medals that year but they had just 36 gold.
China dominated these disciplines
China claimed a total of 18 medals in gymnastics (11 gold). They had seven medals in diving (5 gold). Shooting and table tennis accounted for eight medals apiece. Swimming brought seven medals to the country while five of China's six medals in weightlifting were gold. China's table tennis contingent recorded podium sweeps in women's singles and men's singles events.
Here are the notable athletes
All of Zou Kai's (gymnastics) three medals in the 2008 Games were gold. Yang Wei (gymnastics) was the only other Chinese athlete with three medals that year (2 gold, 1 silver). He Kexin (gymnastics), Chen Yibing (gymnastics), Li Xiaopeng (gymnastics), Xiao Qin (gymnastics), Guo Jingjing (diving), Chen Ruolin (diving), Zhang Yining (table tennis), Ma Lin (table tennis) also claimed two gold medals apiece.