Elite sport success

China’s state-sponsored sporting programme, that has supported young athletes in becoming world and Olympic champions over the past 50 years, was strengthened in the lead-up to the Games, to support the elite athletes in their preparations for the 2008 Olympic Games. The programme has produced a steady stream of successful athletes over the past decade, including boxing, badminton and table tennis medallists.

Thanks in part to the evolution of the sporting system, China won 48 gold medals in Beijing in 2008, almost 10 times more than it had in Seoul 20 years earlier. Out of the 546 medals won by China at the Olympic Games, 161 were won in 2012 and 2016.