China dominates men's gymnastics at the Olympic Games

July 31, 2012

The 2012 London Olympics are in full swing, and many champions have already been named, including the Chinese men's gymnastics team. After winning the gold in Beijing in 2008, China's male gymnasts once again found themselves in the winner's circle. During the preliminary rounds, the Asian nation did not perform as well as one might expect a winning team to do, according to The Associated Press, but that didn't stop them from perfecting their routines when it counted.

"We don't have any faults. That's our secret to beat the Japanese and beat everyone," Zhang Chenglong told the AP. "In preliminaries, we had a little bit of faults, but tonight was completely perfect."

China defeated Japan in Beijing, and narrowly stole the victory at the world championships last year, but this year the Chinese team came out ahead by more than four points, the news source reports. Japan took the silver after a judge review, which left Britain with the bronze. This is the host nation's first group medal of the international competition. The British team finished third in the qualifying rounds, whereas China came in sixth, according to Time magazine.

China's win was even more impressive due to the fact that their lead pommel horse athlete, gold medalist Teng Haibin, was injured on Thursday and replaced by his backup. Despite this setback, China still came out on top thanks to a near-flawless routine on the horizontal bars by 24-year-old Zou Kai.

"All those people who said maybe we weren't going to win, all they were using were words," Kai told the AP. "What we used were actions. And our actions were to win."

Those who want to discuss China's success in men's gymnastics and other Olympic events can make calls to China with international phone cards.

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