As the most promising team among the Chinese delegation, the women's weightlifting team arrived in Athens with an aim for a clean sweep of the gold medals they participated. However, an under-par performance of Li Zhuo in the women's 48kg category gave Chinese women lifters a heavy blow as well as more pressure on the arena.

    "Of course there was pressure," said Liu, after adding the Olympic title to her world championship crown. "But I have learned from previous lessons and knew what I had to do."

    "Whenever I walk into the competition, what I care most is to do my best. As long as I do so, I will have nothing to regret," she added.

    It is not that Liu does not have any regret. At the world championships in Warsaw two years ago, she failed in six attempts.The failure had been a lesson for the girl and prompted her to be an all-around lifter.

    "I was psychologically not prepared for my first World Championship. I choked because I was too eager to win. Now I'm in better condition. I learnt from my failure how important it is foran athlete to be psychologically prepared." She said.

    Liu Chunhong was drafted into an amateur athlete's training school when she was 11 years old and spent her first five months in judo. "I didn't understand what it means to be an athlete," Liu recalled. "I just did it as I was told. And I did it well."

    After she showed herself a budding athlete, Liu was enrolled into a local sports school, where she was made to give up judo andget to weightlifting instead because she "was too short to be a judoka".

    Lifting the bar hundred times a day in a gym could be very boring to most, but Liu Chunhong found fun from it. "I had an unyielding personality when I was in my hometown Yantai, Shangdongprovince. I couldn't even lift 20kg at the beginning in the team. But I was determined to outlift all my colleagues then."

    "However, I didn't make it, one of my colleagues in the 75kg class lifted more than I did," said Liu in a slightly resentful tone.

    She owes a lot to her toughness which, as she said, would always be part of her character. "I never give up. Other competitors also make progress. You have to always work hard in order to win."