The Making Of China's Olympic Golden Age

(CBS)  Nine-year-old Zhang Huiman is on the lonely road to Olympic gold, running 20 miles a day preparing for the games of 2020.

"My heroes," she says through a translator, "are runners who won gold medals."

Welcome to a nation so obsessed with Olympic gold that it is training 200,000 handpicked kids in state-run sports boarding schools, CBS News correspondent Barry Petersen reports.

Weightlifter Ye Ping came there four years ago.

"I miss my mom and dad," she says through a translator. "But the Olympics is the goal of every athlete."

It's the same system the Soviets used to train gold medalists like Maria Filatova in their Cold War sports duel with the United States.

Now a coach in upstate New York, she remembers officials motivated to find the children with the most potential.

People were promoted, she told CBS News if their athletes won gold.

Copying the Soviets, the Chinese went all out - to out-gold the United States.

Their Olympic Games plan: stress sports with less profile but more medals.

Meanwhile, China has three in judo, five in shooting and eight in weightlifting.

To the Chinese, weightlifting counters those golds won by Michael Phelps.

"I think it's important that people realize that the Olympic Games can be gamed," said Matt Forney, a former Beijing bureau chief for Time Magazine who recently wrote an op-ed article on the topic.

Winning isn't just about bringing home a gold medal - it's also about winning a golden future. For many Chinese athletes, thanks to a grateful nation, they can be set for life.

They get a $150,000 bonus - 30 times the average Chinese annual salary.

But the real message is Communism beats Democracy.

"It's their way of showing, see our system - the Chinese Communist Party - put our country on top of the gold medals chart," said Olympic historian David Wallechinsky.

They're already practicing for future Olympics - to again win the most gold and Olympic bragging rights over America.

[eggy1620]

the reality is 86% chinese happy with their government, this was done by a western 3rd party servey. Posted by s002wjh

All animals eventually come to prefer an environment that is the only one they have ever known. If you have experienced nothing but misery your whole life, you eventually conclude that it is acceptable. That social conditioning does not excuse the fact that they are breeding slaves.

[chrisshaw123]

WTF1999 - I am curious why would people question the chinese girls based on their looks. The one from Japan on the beam exercise looks even younger, and nobody talks about it.

Do you have any idea?

[chrisshaw123]

In prior Olympics, we were alway happy we have more medals than the Chinese or the Russians. Now we are behind we start to bring this up?

We are so pround of what Phelp did in Beijing, 8 Gold medals and those new world records. How he is trained? Isn''t it winning the gold medals at the game his sole purpose of life in the past 4-8 year?

Those kids in Chaina do not have the facility we have here so they can be trained properly. if you want to compete, going into the goverment program is the only chance you have.

It''s time we start to understand others, put aside our biased views

[wtf1999]

gpk40 %u2013 No, you%u2019re not correct. The IOC purposely governed age limit rules for gymnasts for a valid reason. I%u2019d provide more details, but you%u2019ll need to research it yourself . . . . I searched it last week, but you%u2019re not worth the waste of time for me to look again this week.

The Chinese female gymnasts may have delivered the goods for a gold medal, but they failed to follow the same IOC rules as the other competing countries. Don%u2019t the rules apply to the Chinese? Are they %u201Cspecial%u201D? Not in my eyes! I find it hard to believe China didn%u2019t have other age appropriate athletes to compete.

And, what exactly does your comment about Americans being overweight have to do with their life, liberty and pursuit of happiness? You spout off as if the rest of the world is without overweight people, which is completely false. Here%u2019s something for you . . . If you don%u2019t like the way we look, don%u2019t look at us!!! I trust that%u2019s not too complicated for you. Foreigners complain about the American way of life, all the while trying to imitate us. Silly foreigners!

[spirit_flow]

A bit sick of the ignorant attack to China, everyone, think a basic fact:
25 years ago, china is still a nation where its people from nowhere to buy a can of coke or a TV, and need to use grain coupon, soap coupon or soya sause coupon to exchange their basic needs due to lack of supply.
We have seen an impressive economic development since then but it is still a nation where majority of its population is lacking clear consciousness of democracy.
Everyone wants a Ferrari, but it is dangerous to put a 15 old into one. If china now allows everyone to vote, the final winner will be the one who promised to pay everyone 100 dollars! Political system is not like economics, it need time to reform. 30 years ago, we may view the chinese people as aliens, they behaves nothing in line of others; but for those who visted china recently or know any young generation chinese, you may notice, the are more rational and exposed when compared with their parents when they were in the same age, this is from where, we see hope.
Rome was not built in one day..

[pugster]

IOC''s system allows people like Phelps to get craploads of metals because of the multiple events in swimming. Whereas in weightlifting, only one metal is allowed per weight class. Also, the sponsors don''t want to sponsor an big and burly weightlifter whereas they would spend big money on a sleek athlete like Phelps.

[s002wjh-2009]

i''m sicking tire of people continue bashing china human right, yes they have issues, seriously most of those people got evict from home has compensations include $$ and new apartment etc.

As for the kids, their parents WANT them to enroll in those schools, so does the kids. the kids not only have to train hard for sport but they also have to learn math and other courses that regular kids learn. for those rural villager kids its great opportunity for them.

the reality is 86% chinese happy with their government, this was done by a western 3rd party servey.

[dmhphils]

Outward appearances is everything with communism, as illustrated with the cute little Chinese girl lip-sinking the song that a not so cute little girl really sang. It is a masquerade. Be perfect on the outside, empty on the inside.

[gpk40]

I say The OLYMPICS is a results based competition and China has delivered the goods.

In response to the person who said the Chinese have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and that The Chinese have given up life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, Who says You havn''t done the same? The average American is an OVERWEIGHT consumerist. And You want to talk about life, liberty and the pursuit of Happiness!!! May God help You because You''re the one in need of it!

May I add that the bogus fake sports opera is produced by Americans!

[gpk40]

I say jealousy makes you ugly, not the political system that governs one''s country nor the colour hair they CHOOSE to have. The article is giving a very biased point of view, only including one child''s point of view about how she felt at one particular point in time ie. "missing her Mom and Dad".Also, the article is making the government look bad by making as though the government isn''t giving the children a choice in the matter. The point of the matter is, in life you have to take risks and these children are. Who hasn''t bought a lotto ticket for themselves, hmmm??? If they''re willing to try, let them! It''s their choice, isn''t it???
At the most, the Chinese government could pressurise some potentially great athletes to join a school. But that happens in America too. It''s just that in America, the pressurising is done by the athlete''s parents and it''s very common, trust Me... Am I not correct in saying this???

I think the ages of the athletes do not particularly matter in any way. I believe IF YOU CAN DELIVER THE GOLD, YOU CAN DELIVER THE GOLD.
Let''s say the little Chinese gymnast is under the age, If she can beat the older gymnasts, why not? It''s better than cheating a drug test and lying over and over again about it then landing up in jail, isn''t it???