Gold medalist Li Wenwen (center) of China jumps on the podium, with silver medalist Park Hyejeong (left) of South Korea and bronze medalist Emily Campbell of Great Britain at the awarding ceremony after the weightlifting women's +81kg competition on August 11, 2024. This is the 40th gold medal for Team China at the Paris Olympics. Photo: Li Hao/GT

The Paris 2024 Olympic Games concluded on Sunday with Team China winning 40 gold, 27 silver and 24 bronze medals, with the result marking the best performance for Team China in the Olympic Games held overseas. 

Chinese analysts said this proves that the success of Chinese modernization can bring not only economic growth, but also can benefit the development of public health, as well as the environment for sports industries, to effectively energize "sports for all." 

This is the core reason why so many talented young athletes can continuously emerge from China's 1.4 billion population in the past decades, and they can also break world records in sports that have been dominated by the US and other Western countries for a long time, experts said. 

Making history

Counting from China's first Olympic gold medal in 1984 thanks to Xu Haifeng's shooting prowess, China successfully surpassed the 300-gold medal mark in Paris. Over the past 40 years, Chinese sports have evolved from achieving occasional standout performances to becoming an undeniable powerhouse of global sports. 

"The Chinese sports delegation achieved a record-breaking performance, winning 40 gold, 27 silver, and 24 bronze medals across 11 major events and 14 sub-events, totaling 91 medals. This marks the best result for China in the Olympic Games held overseas since it began participating in the Summer Olympics in 1984," Zhou Jinqiang, vice chief of the Chinese delegation, told a news conference in Paris on Sunday.

Zhou also noted that Chinese athletes, whether during competitions or when interacting with the media, displayed grace, natural friendliness and an evident love for their country and pride in being Chinese.

Historic breakthroughs were made by Chinese athletes at the Paris Olympics in sports such as tennis, artistic swimming, rhythmic gymnastics and BMX cycling.

Chinese swimmers, delivering their performances under an excessive doping test regime after US hype put international bodies under pressure, collected a total of two gold, three silver and seven bronze medals at the Paris Olympics. One of the highlights in the pool was the men's 4x100m medley relay when team Chinese upended the US' dominance in the discipline for 40 years. The groundbreaking victory produced a powerful riposte to the doubts and disregard that overshadowed the Chinese swimming team in Paris. 

Olympic women's tennis singles gold medalist, 21-year-old Zheng Qinwen, advised people to dare to dream as it could propel one to strive for future success after her epic win at Roland Garros. Zheng is the first Asian athlete to win an Olympic tennis singles gold medal.

Eighteen-year-old freestyle BMX cyclist Deng Yawen noted that her pride and confidence has solidified when she heard the national anthem at the award ceremony, after she claimed China's first gold medal in BMX cycling. 

Chinese gen-Z athletes such as female table tennis star Sun Yingsha and female badminton silver medalist He Bingjiao also contribute some charming sportsmanship moments, such as taking selfies with athletes from North Korea and South Korea, and bringing a pin of Spain to the podium to show respect to wounded Spanish badminton player.

Success of modernization

Ming Jinwei, a former journalist and media commentator, told the Global Times on Sunday that through watching the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the Chinese public is becoming more rational and mature in understanding the performance of Chinese athletes in Olympic competition. "On one hand, we feel pride and joy when we win gold medals, on the other, we also encourage and cheer everyone who tries their best but fails to win golds."

More importantly, more and more Chinese people have learnt that some Western countries, especially the US, care very much about the medal table and they will use every tool they have to win medals, including doping which was exposed by the media. The US will also use its influence among media and international organizations to stigmatize and add obstacles to suppress the countries that able to challenge it on the medal tally, said experts. 

This makes Chinese people clearly understand the nature of international sports - it is a competition of countries' comprehensive national strengths in peace time, and they will not just sit and watch some countries to unfairly manipulate the Olympics. They will support China to not only compete in the arenas but also compete on other relevant fronts and areas to make sure the rules of Olympic Games and other international sports remain fair and clean, analysts said. 

Ming said that winning Olympic gold medals is not only pride for an athlete or a team, but also proof of a country's comprehensive national strength and the sports capability of a nation. It will greatly promote a country's international image and activate patriotism and a sense of honor among the people of this country, so it is extremely valuable and all countries will fight for it.  

Li Xiang, a sports journalist and media commentator who covered Paris 2024, told the Global Times on Sunday that some countries also have huge populations and they are major global economies, but they won few gold medals in the Olympic Games, because economic size and population are not equal to modernization. Team China's performance in past decades is proof of a successful Chinese modernization.

"Modernization has enabled the 1.4 billion Chinese people to participate in sports in all kinds of infrastructures, to watch sports via 5G networks at any place at any time, and also realize economic growth and find business interests through sports. This is what successful modernization looks like," Li noted.