Newsweek carries an article on the performance of Chinese athletes at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

The article asks how much better will China be able to do as it performs on home turf and whether it can extend the number of gold medals it won in Athens. Especially in track and field where Liu Xiang won China’s first ever track and field gold medal at the last Olympics. Liu’s performance has given China that it can win medals in the track and field and outside of sports that China has traditionally dominated such as diving, table tennis and badminton.

“We want to see our athletes win,” says Xing Yue, of the International Studies Institute at Tsinghua University. “But our country’s success after the Olympics because of the Olympics is even more important to the Chinese people.” That’s the gold that will carry the most luster at these Games.

Read the online article here: Olympian Ambitions