The success at the Sydney Olympic Games ascended China's sports to its climax in the Millennium Year.

The new world sports power wrapped up 28 golds, 16 silvers and 15 bronzes in the 2000 Olympics in September. And China strode into the top class of the world's premier sporting event for the first time by finishing third on the Games' final medal table, just behind the United States and Russia.

The record-breaking golden harvest in Sydney demonstrated the best performance ever by Chinese and it issued an undoubted and strong signal that the country of 1.2 billion people has achieved impressively in almost every aspect of sports 16 years since its strong showing in the Olympic Games in 1984.

China won its first ever Olympic gold medal by its men's free pistol shooter Xu Haifeng and finished fourth on the medal tally with 15 golds, eight silvers and nine bronzes in the Los Angeles Games, 32 years after its last Olympic journey in 1952.

The Chinese went on in their Olympic golden journey in the 1988 Games in Seoul, 1992 in Barcelona and 1996 in Atlanta, taking five, 16 and 16 golds respectively. It finished fourth on the medal tally twice in the 1990s before it exploded in Sydney. China has won a total of 52 golds, 63 silvers and 49 bronzes in its five-time Olympic Odyssey.

The Sydney Games witnessed China collect five golds apiece in the sports of weightlifting and diving, four each from table tennis and badminton, while Chinese shooters and gymnasts grabbed a combined sum of six golds. The four others came from judo, taekwondo and track and field.

Chinese swept women's weightlifting, a newly-introduced Olympic discipline, and table tennis as they grabbed all titles of the events and dominated the sports of badminton and diving in Sydney.

The unprecedented success in the Sydney Games benefited from the prevalence of mass participation and the new conception of promoting modern sports.

More than 650,000 stadium of with a total area of 800 million square meters spread around the nation and more than 300 million amateur athletes are competing in various of sports nationwide.

Beijing's bid for the 2008 Olympic Games has won prompt, universal support throughout the country. The campaign has enjoyed and been boosted with new sports facilities up to international standard and vigorous encouragement from local government and the National Olympic Committee.

Domestic league competitions in such sports as soccer, basketball, volleyball, table tennis and badminton have attracted millions of people into stadium during the weekdays and on weekends while luring over one hundred players from abroad.

The fast development of mass sports inspired and impelled the State Sports General Administration, the national governing body for sports, to update with new conception of modern sports in the world.

More and more sports event organizers are seeking new sponsorship and a new road for development as the rapid economic reforms in the country have offered more opportunities. More than a dozen of independent administrative centers have been set up to govern various competitive sports originally under direct administration of the national governing body. The new centers now had to seek financial sponsors by their own.

League competitions like soccer and basketball have exploded into one of the most profitable sports industries in the country in a period of just five to six years. Their successes have encouraged other sports to follow suit.

Although having enjoyed a favorable environment and encouraging policies, China sports are far from being perfect.

The success in the Sydney Olympics however could not compensate the weakness and shortcomings of the general sports structure of China. In fact, they helped Chinese see more clearly an apparent imbalance in Chinese sports.

China won just one gold in the track and field, from the women's 20km walk and Chinese swimmers got home empty-handed.

The victory podiums for soccer, basketball, volleyball and tennis almost excluded players from the country, which had invested millions of dollars into these sports.

With the new millennium approaching, China sports has more work ahead and more hopes to fulfill.

(People's Daily 12/26/2000)