Chen Ying of China gestures during the women's 25m pistol final of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games shooting event at the Beijing Shooting Range Hall in Beijing, China, Aug. 13, 2008. Chen Ying won the gold medal of the event.(Xinhua Photo/Bao Feifei) Photo Gallery>>>

    by Sportswriter Bai Xu

    BEIJING, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Finally her dream of an Olympic gold medal comes true, but there is something about which she had been kept in the dark.

    Excited 31-year-old Chinese shooter Chen Ying wanted to tell her mom Zhang Zhimin the big news immediately. Waiting for several minutes by the busy line, Chen heard a simple sentence: "I am ill."

    Zhang had been suffering from breast cancer and receiving chemotherapy for nearly three months.

    EAGER TO WIN

    The lady from Beijing was eager to win the Olympic gold medal in 25-meter pistol in her hometown.

    "I saw the medal hung on my neck in the dream," she said.

    Appearing gentle and quiet, Chen entered the amateurish sports school in Beijing's Chongwen district in 1990, when she found "it's cool to hold a pistol".

    Four years later, she was recruited in the Beijing shooting squad and started her career as a markswoman.

    Up to the Beijing Olympics, Chen had won numerous gold medals, including those from world cup finals, world championships as well as 2002 and 2006 Asian Games.

    Even illness couldn't stop her medal haul.

    In 2003, she suffered from gastritis when competing in the World Cup final. Before making each shot, she had to make deep breath to ease the pain. But the shooter was still crowned in the competition.

    The only big event that refused her was Olympics. At the Athens Games, the aspiring shooter finished fourth, making a narrow miss from a medal.

    Emulous in nature, she pinned her hopes on the Beijing Games.

    OUT OF SHADOW

    The year 2007 saw the peak of Chen's status.

    Almost insurmountable, she picked up two gold medals in 25-meter pistol, one from World Cup final and one from the Asian Championships.

    But when it came to 2008, she disappeared from the podium.

    At the Good Luck Beijing World Cup this April, Chen, who was ranked second initially, had all her bullets aimed too high in the second of the four-series final and to the right in the third, slipping to the sixth.

    "Her performance today is a failure," commented Wang Yifu, head coach of the Chinese shooting squad.

    In the Munich fort, she finished the fifth.

    In Milan, her qualification score was mis-reported. The mistake hampered the ace shooter from entering the final.

    In comparison, her major rivals seemed extremely formidable: Serbian Jasna Sekaric was crowned in Beijing and Munich, while Mongolian Gundegmaa Otryad was champion in Milan. Chen's world ranking swooped from first to sixth.

    "In those days she appeared rather depressed, reluctant to talk to anybody," said her coach Xue Baoquan.

    On Tuesday evening, the normally self-possessed shooter made a phone call to her husband.

    "What should I do if I can't perform well tomorrow," she asked anxiously.

    After a silence of several seconds, he replied, "At least you can come back home."

    She had a good sleep that night, but he suffered insomnia.

    When her husband called on Wednesday to wake her up, Chen said to him "I love you".

    She never said these three words before.

    "Suddenly I felt assured. No matter how bad I perform, I could at least be an ordinary person, a daughter, a wife, and a daughter-in-law. There is always a cozy place left for me," she said.

    MIRACULOUS OVERTURN

    Chen's victory on Wednesday was hailed by many as a miraculous overturn.

    Ranked third among eight finalists with 585 points from the qualification round, she was five points below her old rival Otryad who equaled Olympic record with 590 points.

    But Chen with a girlish pony-tail managed to impress the audience with her unmatchable sharpness in the final, chalking up the highest scores in the first and second five-shot series -- 52.5 and 53.1 points.

    After the two series, she surged to the second, with 1.6 points less than the 30-year-old Mongolian, gold medalist in the 2006 World Cup final.

    Something dramatic happened in the third series.

    Chen, with two gold medals achieved from World Cup final and one from World Championships since 2005, kept her momentum and notched up another 52.5.

    But when Otryad finished her performance, the tally just showed the score of the first shot, 9.0.

    Watched by bewildered spectators, she was asked to make the rest four fires again. She finished with a 49.0. This meant Chen was 1.9 points ahead.

    In the last series, although she finished with a decent 50.3, which was 0.7 points less than that of the Mongolian, her previous advantage was too big to surpass.

    "She shot stunningly well. She was excellent," said Chinese shooting head coach Wang Yifu.

    Chen said she had similar experience of lagging behind. "So I fired every shot calmly and then I overtook," she said.

    The champion attributed her victory partially to the cooperation of the audience, to whom she bowed after competition.

    "When I fired, they were really quiet and when I shot a high score, they gave me warm cheers that encouraged me to shoot well," she said.

    "This is one of my most enjoyable competition," she said.

    RETURNING HOME

    From this competition, Chen realized how important family meant to her and how much her beloved ones sacrificed for her.

    Her mother Zhang Zhimin had an operation from breast cancer in 2003, when she was competing for the quota place to Athens Olympics. She didn't know about this until her competitions ended.

    After the Milan fort of World Cup this year, Chen went directly for training, leaving only a phone call to her mom.

    In the call, the run-down old lady didn't want to disturb her and thus cheated her by saying that she "was in Tianjin", Beijing's neighboring municipality.

    With such memories, the champion had tears glittering in her eyes.

    "I don't know how serious her illness was. How I wanted to take wings and return home as soon as possible!"

    Talking about the future, Chen said she would hold a delayed wedding ceremony on the ninth of this November. "The number nine has the same pronunciation as 'eternal', and I hope we are together forever," she explained.

    If she could not go to compete in next year's National Games, Chen planned to have a baby.

    "My biggest wish is to be with my family," she said.