China is gaining, but Team USA is still No. 1
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- World Record holder Liu Xiang, of China, center, clears the last hurdle on the way to winning the Men’s 110 meters Hurdles at the China Athletics Open in Beijing, China, Saturday, May 24, 2008. At left is second placed Shi Dongpeng, of China, and at right is sixth placed Masato Naito, of Japan. (AP Photo/Greg Baker)
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- Chinese athletic coach Fang Shuiquan talks about his training methods in Shanghai on July 14, 2008. Fang, a graduate of the Shanghai University of Sport, had originally wanted to coach soccer but the Communist Party ordered him to become a specialist in the 110m hurdles, is now one of the most respected athletics coaches in China, with an unrivalled record as all of China’s top 10 men’s hurdlers are former students. CHINA OUT GETTY OUT
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- China’s Liu Chunghong, left, watches her teammate Chen Xiexia during training for the weightlifting competition of the 2008 Beijing Olympics in Beijing, Thursday, Aug. 7, 2008.
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- In this photo distributed by the official Chinese news agency Xinhua, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, right, receives a basketball with the signatures of Chinese men’s basketball team players from Yao Ming at the Beijing Olympic Basketball Gymnasium in Beijing, on Sunday August 3, 2008.
BEIJING – The subject was the Chinese Olympic team, and Peter Ueberroth was sounding like Lou Holtz talking up his next opponent.
The Chinese, he wanted the world’s media to know, are the biggest, strongest, fastest, meanest, toughest, smartest, best-looking and most well-read people on the planet. They chew nails and spit thumbtacks. They can outrun light, bench press the moon and quote Shakespeare in Urdu. Gosh, but the United States has to be happy just to be on the same field with these paragons of puissance.
I exaggerate a little. What he actually said of the host team was: “I expect them to be the dominant team in the Olympic Games for many years to come. We’re going to do our best. We’re not used to being an underdog in the Olympic Games, but we’ll get used to that and do our best.”
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You’re currently reading “China is gaining, but Team USA is still No. 1,” an entry on Ask A Chinese – 問一個中國人
- Published:
- August 7, 2008 / 7:00 pm
- Category:
- Beijing Olympics 北京奧運
- Tags:
- China Medal Count
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