After a shining performance that has realized five gold medals to date at the Beijing Olympics, Chinese weightlifters have easily handled the weight of expectations on them in front of a highly-critical audience of more than one billion Chinese spectators.

Chen Xiexia won the women's 48 kg category on the opening day of competition, bagging the first gold for the Chinese delegation; teen prodigy Long Qingquan triumphed in the men's 56kg on Sunday.

On Monday, Chen Yanqing (the two Chens are not related), 29, retained her women's 58kg Olympic title with a total lift of 244kg, while 25-year-old Zhang Xiangxiang contributed another gold in the men's 62kg.

The latest gold came from Liao Hui winning the men's 69 kg division by 10 kg over Frenchman Vencelas Dabaya-Tientcheu who took the silver.

As the Chinese weightlifting team triumphed at an 100 percent victory rate in all five matches the country took part in, the delegation is lifting its weight in a gold rush dream by billions.

Save the tears, show the smile 

Gold medalist Chen Xiexia of China shows the gold medal at the awarding ceremony of the women's 48kg weightlifting event at Beijing 2008 Olympic Games at the Beijing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics Gymnasium in Beijing, China, Aug. 9, 2008. Chen won the first gold for the Chinese Delegation with a total of 212 kilos. [Yang Lei/Xinhua]

 

Chen Xiexia's coach Ma Wenhui lost 6 kg of weight after she strained the muscle in her left leg 28 days before the Beijing Games.

But the 25-year-old managed to overcome the setback and lived up to expectations on Saturday when she cruised to victory with a total score of 212kg, a new Olympic record.

After years of hard training and a recent injury which nearly cost her an Olympic berth, Chen seemed to have a thousand reasons to cry, but instead she flashed a smile after the competition.

"There is nothing I fear after going through the low tide," Chen said,"I felt depressed over the injury, but I never give up."

Born in Panyu City in south China's Guangdong Province, Chen never thought it would be such a difficult road when she chose to practice weightlifting.

"I knew Chen was special at the first sight of the girl when she was eight years old," said Li Binming, her first weightlifting coach at a local amateur sports school.

"Her body structure seemed perfectly suited for weightlifting even then. She could pull a cart loaded with 150kg of sugar cane, alone."

Chen kept training hard, and it paid off.

In April at the Asian Weightlifting Championships she broke the previous world record set by her teammate Yang Lian in 2006, and claimed the gold.

Three weeks later, she defeated 2002 world champion Wang Mingjuan at the national championships.

Also last year, Chen participated in the World Weightlifting Championships in Thailand, her first event abroad, and won three golds.