After a shining performance that has realized five gold medals to date at the Beijing Olympics, Chinese weightlifters have easily handled the weight of expectations on them in front of a highly-critical audience of more than one billion Chinese spectators.
Chen Xiexia won the women's 48 kg category on the opening day of competition, bagging the first gold for the Chinese delegation; teen prodigy Long Qingquan triumphed in the men's 56 kg on Sunday.
On Monday, Chen Yanqing (the two Chens are not related), 29, retained her women's 58 kg Olympic title with a total lift of 244 kg, while 25-year-old Zhang Xiangxiang contributed another gold in the men's 62 kg.
The latest gold came from Liao Hui winning the men's 69 kg division by 10 kg over Frenchman Vencelas Dabaya-Tientcheu who took the silver.
As the Chinese weightlifting team triumphed at an 100 percent victory rate in all five matches the country took part in, the delegation is lifting its weight in a gold rush dream by billions.
Save the tears, show the smile
Chen Xiexia's coach Ma Wenhui lost 6 kg of weight after she strained the muscle in her left leg 28 days before the Beijing Games.
But the 25-year-old managed to overcome the setback and lived up to expectations on Saturday when she cruised to victory with a total score of 212 kg, a new Olympic record.
After years of hard training and a recent injury which nearly cost her an Olympic berth, Chen seemed to have a thousand reasons to cry, but instead she flashed a smile after the competition.
"There is nothing I fear after going through the low tide," Chen said,"I felt depressed over the injury, but I never give up."
Born in Panyu City in south China's Guangdong Province, Chen never thought it would be such a difficult road when she chose to practice weightlifting.
"I knew Chen was special at the first sight of the girl when she was eight years old," said Li Binming, her first weightlifting coach at a local amateur sports school.
"Her body structure seemed perfectly suited for weightlifting even then. She could pull a cart loaded with 150 kg of sugar cane, alone."
Chen kept training hard, and it paid off.
In April at the Asian Weightlifting Championships she broke the previous world record set by her teammate Yang Lian in 2006, and claimed the gold.
Three weeks later, she defeated 2002 world champion Wang Mingjuan at the national championships.
Also last year, Chen participated in the World Weightlifting Championships in Thailand, her first event abroad, and won three golds.
Success comes to those who persevere
For Chen Yanqing, defending her Olympic title was hard won after announcing her retirement three times in the past eight years.
She first made her name in 1997 by claiming the clean and jerk and total golds in the world championships and ruled the category by continuously smashing world records.
Despite ranking number one in the 58 kg class, Chen missed the 2000 Sydney Olympics as China did not enter in that class due to an overestimation of her major rival, Ri Song Hui from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Dismayed, Chen announced her retirement in 2001, after scoring only a bronze at the National Games in Guangzhou that year.
"Back in 2000, I was only 21. I was at the best age of an athlete. I didn't know what I should be up to next after missing out the Sydney Games. I chose to go to college."
But Chen came out of retirement just two years later, to prepare for the 10th National Games held in her native Jiangsu Province. She scored another bronze, and qualified for the national weightlifting team for the Sydney Olympics.
In 2004, Suzhou-native Chen finally pocketed her first Olympic gold and defeated rival Ri by 5 kg in Athens.
With her Olympic dream fulfilled, Chen again announced retirement in 2004, but returned for the 2005 National Games where she broke three world records.
Her third retirement lasted less than a month. Chen qualified for the Olympics after winning another national championship in her third comeback in April after her coach Cao Xinmin's repeated pleas.
"I want to thank my coach Cao for accompanying me for 18 years," she said, "Without him, I would never have made such achievements."
"If the Athens gold belongs to me, this one belongs to all the people supporting me," she said after claiming her second Olympic gold.
Like Chen Yanqing, Zhang Xiangxiang, champion of men's 62 kg class weightlifting of the Beijing Games, is just another Chinese medalist who succeeded through years of hard work and perseverance.
The 25-year-old won a bronze medal during the Sydney Olympics eight years ago. The ambitious young man aimed for gold at the 2004 Athens Games but was struck down by a medical mistreatment a year previously.
"In 2003, I strained my waist during practice and received an anesthesia shot in my waist to ease the pain. But the nurse accidentally stuck the needle to my spinal cord. I was almost paralyzed.
"One month after recovery, I couldn't even lift 20 kg," he said, "It was very difficult for me, and for the people who had been supporting me."
Zhang resumed training in 2004, and regained his confidence when he claimed the national championship last year. The victory helped him qualify for the Olympics as another star lifter, Qiu Le, the two-time world champion, got injured at the 2007 world championships.
Bagging the gold medal in the men's 62 kg class on Monday, Zhang kneeled down four times to thank the home fans who had roared their support to him when he tried to break the world record in his third clean and jerk attempt.
Zhang was still very happy despite the failed attempt at the world record. He crouched on the platform and kissed the barbells.
"I am lucky to be standing here today. I have waited for this moment for eight years. The key thing is persistence and never backing down," Zhang said. "As long as you have life, you can create everything."
Weigh to go
"I will play my part to secure my teammate Shi Zhiyong (to get the gold)," lifter Liao Hui said before the Games. He added as a rookie, he would just take this opportunity to gain more experience.
But Liao successfully overcame pressure and lived up to the home fans' expectations and won the Olympic title. In contrast, Shi had to quit the clean and jerk competition due to a waist injury.
Liao said he had no advantage over his teammate, and just worried less than Shi did.
Born in Xiantao City, a renowned "home of gymnasts" in the central Hubei Province, Liao dreamed of following suit when he was seven years old. He changed his mind the following year when he caught the eye of weightlifting coach Gan Yongkui.
Liao's parents initially did not want him to become a weightlifter because they feared he would end up short and squat. Eventually they agreed after his first coach paid the family persistent visits, guaranteeing a promising future.
At age 20, Liao, together with teen prodigy Long Qingquan, is likely to represent China again at the 2012 London Games.
Long won the men's 56 kg title on Sunday giving China its sixth gold of the Games. The chubby, electronic games-loving 17-year-old, who idolizes world record holder Halil Mutlu, lifted 132 kg in the snatch and set two new junior world records with a clean and jerk effort of 160 kg and a combined total of 292 kg.
"It's a great pity that he could not compete here today," Long said of Olympic legend Mutlu, who still holds all the world's bantamweight lifting records after his last appearance on the Olympic stage in Athens four years ago. The Turk had skipped Beijing because he couldn't lift his target weight.
"As you know he is also my target. I dream to surpass him," he said.
(Xinhua News Agency August 13, 2008)