By Sportswriter Zhou Yan
BEIJING, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- For host China, the
Beijing Olympic Games are more than a sports rally -- it is rather a grand
gathering of the world's most-loved heroes who, with or without a medal, have
made the Games so much better with their unyielding will.
Never before have the 1.3 billion Chinese been so
wild with excitement, to watch worldwide athletes play at the Games so close to
their home.
The domestic crowd have gone wild with American
superfish Michael Phelps throughout his way to all-eight Olympic golds and seven
new world records, and with Jamaica's double gold sprinter Usain Bolt.
Sad as they are without their national icon Liu Xiang
in the 110m hurdles final, the Chinese are waiting to witness Cuban hurdler
Dayron Robles making history on Thursday night.
Thirty years after China's reform and opening up to
the outside world, the Chinese have merged into the world, by hosting the Games
with all their heart, cheering for all the players, sharing their laughters and
tears and idolizing the world's common heroes.
The Games feel so much better and the world so much
smaller, as the whole world watched Phelps and Bolt making history in
Beijing.
While Chinese youngsters openly voice admiration for
Phelps on the Internet, many others are pondering over what Chinese athletes
should learn from Bolt, the naughty 22-year-old who grimaces at TV cameras and
prefers sleeping late and chewing chocolate nuggets to training.
Bolt was even criticized by some Chinese spectators
for "taking the Olympics too light-heartedly". He slowed down at the end of his
100m sprint to check if he was still ahead and punch his chest in joy before
finishing in record-breaking 9.69 seconds last Saturday. Even his shoelaces were
not fastened. "I was just having fun, that's me," he said.
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