EXPLAINED: Reasons For Dominance Of China At Olympics
The dominance of China in international sports has coincided with its rapid economic development. The trend has been more palpable with the rise of China at Olympics.
The People’s Republic of China took part in the Summer Games for the first time in 1952 Summer Olympics held in Helsinki, Finland. Since then China has emerged as one of the most successful nations in the history of the Olympics.
Ranked fifth in the world, China has 286 gold, 231 silver and 197 bronze medals in the Olympics. It has a total of 714 Olympics medals. Between the 1996 and 2020 Olympic Games, China bagged 226 gold, 157 silver, and 137 bronze medals. China’s best Olympic performance came in 2008 Beijing Olympics when the host clinched 48 golds.
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The dominance of China in international sports has coincided with its rapid economic development. The trend has been more palpable at the Olympics.
Reasons for Rise of China At Olympics
China has formulated a plan and procedure to produce the best athletes in the world who can reign supreme at the Olympics. Under the Chinese government policy, special spotters are recruited to scout children in the age group of 3 to 5 years from all over the country. The country has more than 2000 sports academies to hone their skills. The State has pumped in a huge amount of funds to train the athletes. The government takes responsibility for all the athletes from personal coaches to training equipment, leaving no stone unturned.
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China has more than 200,000 full-time athletes within their Olympic or Institute of Sports programs. Each Chinese athlete participating in the Olympics undergoes a mandatory 350-days training, following the beliefs of Confucius, in what is called the structured training method.
China does not believe in winning just any medal. It gives importance to winning gold. The athletes are trained to eye for the gold medal and the government has taken the onus on itself to bring in as much gold as possible. This is also a way of the Chinese government to send a message to the world of its soft power.
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China’s delegation to the Paris 2024 Olympics includes 405 athletes competing in 236 medal events. According to Nielsen’s Gracenote forecast, China is projected to win as many as 34 gold medals at the Paris Olympics 2024.