Hello and welcome to this edition of Reports from Developing Countries on China Radio International. I'm Zheng Chenguang in Beijing.

For China's sports officials and athletes, the year 2008 has been a bittersweet one as the long-awaited Beijing Olympic Games caught the eyes of the world and put their strength to the test.

With the games winning loads of recognition and the Chinese delegation clinching 51 gold medals and topping the goal tally, the country's years of hard work finally paid off and culminated in one of the most magnificent sports extravaganzas the world has ever seen. In today's program, we will go behind the scenes and reflect on the stories of China's sports officials and athletes in 2008.

Please stay tuned.

Report:

On January 1, 2008, as Chinese people were happily embracing the arrival of the New Year, 59-year-old Cui Dalin was not in the mood. The deputy director of China's General Administration of Sports knew that 2008 would not be an easy year for the Chinese sports legion, especially at a time when China's two strong rivals, Russia and the United States were eager to finish at the top of the table.

"Russia has won more medals than us in all major games in 2007 and so did the United States. But we were the host country which was a once-in-a-century opportunity. We were quite determined to make an effort."

Cui Dalin says he felt like walking on thin ice and was quite prudent in gearing up for the games. But he had never expected the Chinese delegation to put up such wonderful performances during the 17-day event.

On August 9th, one day after the games officially kicked off, 25-year-old Chen Xiexia pocketed China's first gold after succeeding in lifting 212 kilograms, breaking the world record in the women's 48 kilogram category.

"I want to say to them that I didn't let them down. I also want to thank them for their support and good wishes."

Since day one, the Chinese delegation started its winning ways and ended up with a total of 100 medals.

Cui Dalin says these medals are broadly distributed in 26 of the Games' 28 events.

"The breakthroughs in some events broadened our scope of winning. This showed our competitive strength had increased greatly."

During the Beijing Olympics, China took a lion's share of gold medals in its traditional strengths such as table tennis, weight lifting, diving and gymnastics. The Chinese table tennis players too did their bit.

Liu Guoliang is the head coach of the Chinese men's table tennis squad.

"I'm quite satisfied with our players' performance. During training, I told my players that what makes table tennis our national sport is the number of Olympic gold medals we win in it. Every generation of China's table tennis players wins gold medals. So what you should do is to make every game a festival for the Chinese people. We did it in the Beijing Olympics."

The Chinese squad has made breakthroughs in other events. During the Beijing Olympics, Chinese athletes won gold medals in archery and boxing - unprecedented in its Olympic history.

Zhang Juanjuan won gold in the women's individual archery event, becoming the first non-Korean archer to win the event since the 1984 Los Angles Games.

"This gold medal has really added credibility to Chinese archers. I'm really happy about this."

Zou Shiming clinched China's first ever gold medal in boxing. And Zhang Xiaoping won gold in the men's 81 kilograms category boxing, spelling a remarkable end to China's brilliant show at the event.

Cui Dalin said he is more than happy when he heard the news.

"The time we had made sure we outnumbered the US and Russia in gold medals was at two o'clock in the afternoon of August 24th, when Zhang Xiaoping clinched China's 51st gold, also China's 100th medal. We were really thrilled."

In 2008, China witnessed its sporting strength catapult to new highs in the world arena and set a benchmark for other host countries to reach.

That's it for this edition of Reports from Development Countries brought to you by China Radio International. This is Zheng Chenguang in Beijing, thanks for listening.