In 1984, China sent its first delegation to take part in the Olympic Games in Los Angeles. They won 15 gold medals and were ranked fourth in the gold medal tally.
IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch presented the gold medal to China's first Olympic champion, Xu Haifeng, saying that it was "a big day in China's 5,000 year history."
Gymnastic star Li Ning who won three gold medals, two silver medals and one bronze at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 was praised as a "tower of strength" by local newspapers in New York.
One newspaper article wrote: "The American people are fascinated by this little giant from China."
Chinese athletes at the Seoul Olympics in 1988 did not perform their best. China managed to snatch only five gold medals from a total of 32 medals. China was ranked seventh in the number of medals won.
China was fourth in the number of gold medals won at the Olympic Games in Barcelona (1992) and Atlanta (1996). Chinese swimmers did exceptionally well. The famous "Five Golden Flowers" including Yang Wenyi, Zhuang Yong, Qian Hong, Wang Xiaohong, grabbed four gold medals and one silver in Barcelona. Le Jingyi, won a gold medal at the Atlanta Olympics.
A number of Chinese athletes excelled in the diving event. Sun Shuwei and Xiong Ni took the lead in the men's diving event, while Gao Min and Fu Mingxia were forerunners in the women's event. Fu Mingxia became the youngest Olympic champion at the age of 14. Her success became a cover story in "Time" magazine titled "Olympic Height-China's gold medallist Fu Mingxia." Four years later, in Atlanta, she went on to do well again, winning the women's platform and springboard diving competitions.
For the first time in China's history Sun Fuming won China's first gold medal in Judo, beating Cuba's Estella Rodriguez in the women's heavyweight class final. In a great show of Olympic spirit and tenacity, Wang Yifu, veteran sharpshooter, worked through a bout of dizziness during the men's air pistol final, but later collapsed and was taken to hospital. But his efforts paid off with him bringing home a silver medal in the event.
China also did extremely well in table tennis, winning six gold medals in two Olympics. China won all four gold medals in table tennis in Atlanta. IOC President Samaranch presented gold medals to the two-time Olympic champion Deng Yaping who later became a member of the IOC's Athletes Commission.
During his meeting with Chinese Olympic gymnastic champion Li Xiaoshuang at the Atlanta Olympic Games, US President Bill Clinton congratulated Li on his success. "You had setbacks in the games, but what counts is that you got back on your feet again."
At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, China did quite well coming in third place with the most medals won at the Games. They brought home 28 gold medals, a great improvement compared to the 16 they won in Atlanta.
They won the gold medals in the events they knew they would do well in like diving, table tennis, badminton, shooting, weightlifting and gymnastics.
China's dominance in the Olympic table tennis competition was taken to a new level in Sydney when China's athletes took eight of the 12 medals offered in the event. The Chinese took centre stage in the men's double finals,as well as the finals in the women's singles and doubles.
Kong Linghui, former world champion, defeated Swedish veteran Jan-Ove Waldner in a five-set battle for the men's singles medal.
In diving, China swept all the others in the three opening disciplines collecting five gold and five silver medals from eight categories.
Xiong Ni, joined Greg Louganis at the Los Angeles Olympics,as the only divers to have retained the men's springboard title. In addition Fu Mingxia, with Sydney as her third consecutive Olympic competition, became the third diver in history ever to have won four Olympic gold medals.
Yang Ling and Cai Yalin, Atlanta Olympic champion, contributed precious metal to China's Olympic pot, winning one event each to make China the biggest winner in shooting with a record of three golds, two silvers and three bronzes.
