Chinese gymnasts back on top with best-ever Olympic performance

But being the focus equals pressure, resulting from high expectations piled on them. That's exactly what made Chinese male gymnasts' failure in Athens a bitter and lasting scar.

From the first world all-around gold medal by Li Ning in 1982, to the first Olympic all-around champion by Li Xiaoshuang in 1996, to the first Olympics men's team gold in Sydney, the Chinese finished their journey from being nothing to a gymnastics superpower.

They were expected to gain more, particularly the team title, because it is placed above individual titles as a measurement of the country's overall level of gymnastics. But their dream to build on their Sydney achievement was crushed in Athens.

The Chinese gymnastics team came under heavy fire after the Athens Games, and some media even described the Athens as "drawing the line between Chinese gymnasts' paradise and hell". The Chinese gymnastics team sank to its lowest.

How the Chinese gymnasts made their impressive comeback may be a long story, but Gao prefered to keep it short. "In the past four years, we had worked so hard to come from our lowest to the peak."

Like Gao, Huang Yubing, head coach of the men's team, summed up Chinese gymnasts' renaissance with one sentence. "We adjusted ourselves to the gymnastics new scoring system and new rules. "

With the newly-obtained golds, Chinese gymnasts won a total of 52 Oympic medals, including 22 gold medals, 22 silver and 15 bronze.

Editor:Wang Shuqin