Long and winding road for China' men to catch up with women at Olympics

By Wednesday, Chinese athletes have won 79 medals -- including 45 golds at the Beijing Olympic Games. Twenty of the golds went to men and 25 to women. While both have taken seven silvers, Chinese men also lag behind the women with a shortfall of nine bronzes.

"In my country, men and women are equal and we women are able to do everything as well as men," said gold winning weightlifter Chen Yanqing after retaining her 58kg title last week.

Nearly 60 years after Chinese women were put alongside men at production lines and other jobs outside home, it is the men who have been trying hard to catch up with women since Barcelona in 1992.

Chinese women took 12 golds at those Games, including four in swimming, two in diving, two in table tennis and one each in 10,000-meter walk, 72kg class judo, skeet and gymnastics. The men's team took four golds, one each in diving, gymnastics, shooting and table tennis.

The gap was reduced greatly at Atlanta, with the men/women gold tally standing at seven to nine, but rebounded to 11.5 to 16.5 in Sydney 2000, with one mixed gold in badminton, and staggered to 12.5 to 19.5 at Athens in 2004.

The outstanding performances of Chinese women are to a large extent attributed to their male teammates, who spent much time practicing with women in order to boost the latter's overall strength.

On the other hand, experts have interpreted the gap from anatomic perspective, saying Chinese women are rather similar to Western women in form and physical strength, while Chinese men are far behind their Western peers.

Despite their smaller build, Chinese men are eager to prove they can do as good as women, at least in sports where China enjoys traditional advantages, gymnastics and weightlifting, for example.

Four years after leaving Athens with only one gold, the Chinese gymnastics team have learned from their mistakes and carefully prepared themselves for revenge on home soil.

By Tuesday, Chinese men have won seven out of the country's nine golds in gymnastics, with Li Xiaopeng, 27, taking his 16th world title and fourth Olympic gold to surpass former gymnastic legend Li Ning as China's golden gymnast.

Twenty-year-old Zou Kai won his third Olympic gold on Tuesday in horizontal bars, following two earlier titles in floor exercise and men's team.

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