The Official Website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic GamesAugust 8-24 2008
(BEIJING, August 12) -- China performed according to expectations today, taking out the Team gold in Men's Gymnastics.
The gold medal was the perfect redemption for a team that missed out a medal at Athens 2004. China put in a dominant display and was never threatened.
The Chinese gymnasts seemed relaxed throughout the final and it was perhaps because they already had the measure of their opponents.
China was the best performed team in the qualification phase, with Japan and the United States the only teams who seemed capable of causing an upset.
However, led by its trio of veterans, Yang Wei, Huang Xu and Li Xiaopeng, China was never in danger of losing the gold medal.
Yang's face bristles with arrogance, but he has the performance to match – he competed in five of the six rotations and scored highly on each apparatus. Yang, 28, is the hot favorite to win gold in the All-Around final on August 14.
In stark contrast to the serious Yang, Huang had a smile on his face throughout the final. The 29-year-old gymnast competed in three rotations and was his team's highest scorer in the Parallel Bars.
After the event, Huang confirmed that his emotions were running high: "I almost burst into tears after the Rings and Parallel Bars. Because of my age, I think this may be my last Olympic Games and I performed extravagantly."
Li, a 27 year old from Hunan Province, also looked like he was enjoying himself in the final. He looked like a man who had a ton of pressure removed from his shoulders.
"I think the gold medal is very heavy - not just because gold weighs a lot, but because of the efforts we've made to get it," said Li while holding his gold medal after the event.
China was also well served by its younger brigade, 23-year-olds Chen Yibing and Xiao Qin, as well as 20-year-old Zou Kai.
Chen performed in three rotations and was the final's highest scorer in the Rings. Xiao performed in two rotations and was the only gymnast in the final to score more than 16 points in the Pommel Horse. Zou was the best individual scorer in both the Floor Exercise and the Horizontal Bar.
