Guo second in USSA Female Athlete of the Year vote
Wednesday, 31st December 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Known as the "Diving Queen" in Chinese media, Guo was second to no one, man or woman, in a favorite athlete poll of Hong Kong school children, conducted by the Boys and Girls Club of Hong Kong. The question on her fans' minds now is, what will Guo do with her fame, talent and good looks? At 27 years old, she's just young enough to consider one last Olympic appearance. There were rumors in the fall that she'd suit up for Hong Kong in the 2012 Olympics, and there's always speculation about her pursuing a career in modeling or acting.
Rounding out the top five in the schoolkids' vote were, in order Liu Xiang (track and field), Lin Dan (badminton), Yao Ming (basketball) and Yang Wei (gymnastics).
Guo Jingjing image: 163.com
Tags: diving, Guo Jingjing, Lin Dan, Liu Xiang, Yang Wei, Yao Ming
Day 6: More gold, more records for China
Thursday, 14th August 2008 ~ Chris ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
As of 6:45 pm Beijing time, China held its lead in the gold medal race, with 22, well ahead of second-place Team USA's 10 golds. South Korea, Italy and Germany were tied for third with six golds each.In terms of overall medals won, China retook the lead from the US, with 34 medals compared to the Americans' 33. South Korea and Australia were tied for third with a total of 16 medals each.
Yang Wei wins men's individual gymnastics competition
Yang Wei (杨威), who took gymnastics gold with his teammates on August 12, won the men's individual competition today. Although Yang is known for his consistent performance across all six disciplines, he came close to disaster in the last, the horizontal bar. Close to losing his grip, he held on to bring China its first men's all-round gold since Li Xiaoshuang 李小双 at the Atlanta games in 1996.
Chinese women swim into the record books
In the swimming pool, Liu Zige (刘子歌) won gold with a world record time of two minutes 04.18 seconds in the women's 200m butterfly. Her teammate Jiao Liuyang (焦刘洋) from Harbin took silver, also beating the previous world record. The ousted world record holder, Jessicah Schipper of Australia, took bronze.
Fourth shooting gold for China
Du Li (杜丽), having unsuccessfully defended her Olympic title in the 10 meter air rifle competition on August 9, today took gold in the 50 meter rifle three positions (prone, standing, kneeling) event. She did it in style too, with a new Olympic record of 690.3 points.
Zhang Juanjuan pulls off archery upset
27th-seeded Zhang Juanjuan (张娟娟) outshot top seed Park Sung-hyun of South Korea for a surprise win in archery's women's individual competition Thursday. Zhang scored 110 of a possible 120 points with Park taking the silver with 109 and her South Korean teammate Yun Ok-hee winning bronze.
Yang Wei image: The Australian
Liu Zige image: french.peopledaily.com.cn
Du Li image: 2008.sina.com.cn
Tags: Du Li, Jiao Liuyang, Li Xiaoshuang, Liu Zige, Yang Wei
China maintains gold lead, US takes lead in total medals
Tuesday, 12th August 2008 ~ Chris ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
On day four of the Beijing Olympics China added more gold medals to its takings, reaching a total of eleven golds by 6:45 pm Beijing time. Team China was followed by the United States with seven and South Korea with five.In terms of overall medals, the US took the lead with a big morning – especially in swimming events - that brought its total to 21, three more than China's 18. South Korea trailed the two giants with eleven total medals.
China snatches fourth gold in weightlifting
Late Monday, China continued its winning ways in weightlifting as Zhang Xiangxiang (张湘祥) lifted a total of 319 kilograms in the men's 62 kilogram category. After failing in his attempt to lift 184 kilograms on his final attempt, Zhang fell to the floor and bowed and then kowtowed to the applause of spectators. He then hugged the barbell that was unable to stop him from winning gold. Diego Salazar Colombia took the silver after lifting a total of 305 kilograms and Indonesian Triayatno won bronze with 298 kilograms.
China savors men's team gold in gymnastics
China's gymnastics team won gold by a comfortable margin in the all-round men's event. China scored 286.125 points. Silver went to Japan (278.875) and bronze to the United States (275.850). This marks a return to form for a team that took gold in Sydney and then failed to medal at all in Athens. Yang Wei (杨威), Huang Xu (黄旭), Li Xiaopeng (李小鹏) and Xiao Qin (肖钦) were all on the team that placed 5th in Athens. Chen Yibing (陈一冰) and Zou Kai (邹凯) rounded out the team.
China picks up third diving gold
Team China achieved its third diving gold today as the teenage duo of Wang Xin (王鑫) and Chen Ruolin (陈若琳) came top in the women's synchronized 10m platform competition. Wang, who turned 16 yesterday, and Chen scored 363.54 points, to clinch first place in an event that China has won since its introduction at the 2000 games in Sydney. Australia (335.16) took silver, with Mexico close behind (330.06) for bronze.
Zheng Jie starts off on a winning note
Sichuanese tennis sensation Zheng Jie (郑洁), whose performance in Wimbledon earlier this year made her an instant star in China and around the world, has won her first two matches at the Olympic Green Tennis Center, where she is receiving a rock star welcome from the home crowd.
On Monday, Zheng defeated 11th-seeded Agnes Szavay of Hungary in three sets (4-6, 6-3, 7-5) to the audience's delight. On Tuesday she overcame Spain's Nuria Llagostera 6-7(7), 6-1, 6-4 in an error-filled three-hour epic. Despite starting both matches down one set, the 5-foot 4-inch powerhouse from Chengdu was able to use her blistering serve and powerful backhand to overcome her early deficits.
Zheng will take on Dinara Safina of Russia in the third round of the women's singles tournament.
Images: Reuters via Yahoo! News
Tags: Chen Ruolin, Chen Yibing, Huang Xu, Li Xiaopeng, Olympics, Wang Xin, Xiao Qin, Yang Wei, Zhang Xiangxiang, Zheng Jie, Zou Kai