With four more days to go before China's almost certain top finish of the Beijing Games, Xiao said Chinese men have seemingly narrowed the gap with women.

Besides gymnastics, better scores in men's weightlifting have also helped Chinese men to hold up their half of the sky.

Chinese strongmen have seized four, or half, of all the weightlifting golds at the Beijing Games, compared with two out of three in Athens. "As far as weightlifting is concerned, our men and women have all demonstrated their best performances -- everything was perfect," said Xiao.

Cui Dalin, another deputy chef de mission, gave all athletes thumbs up at a press conference on Saturday, halfway into the competitions. "Our men and women have all been doing well at these Games. The young men, in particular, are on their way to reverse women's dominance on the medal tally."

Though Monday's sudden pullout of top Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang for foot injuries saddened all domestic fans and dashed one of the host country's most-coveted gold medal, the absolute majority of the public agreed it was not fair to crunch Liu alone with the high expectations of the 1.3 billion Chinese.

China decided to popularize athletics, swimming and other internationally dominant sports among its youngsters at the start of the century, but the campaign has been rather sluggish at schools given the lack of proper facilities in the countryside and overburden of schoolwork for city kids.

Yet despite the country's top position on the Olympic gold tally, China still needs to train more Liu Xiang, Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps type of athletes for future Olympics -- and more importantly, for the overall improvement of its people's health.

The country has also been training harder for the "big ball games" -- with the immediate effects being its men's volleyball and basketball teams entering top eight at the Olympics.

The men's volleyball team, long overshadowed by the glory of the women players who won five consecutive world championships since the early 1980s, have also made history at the Beijing Games by making top eight despite their loss to Italy on Monday. It failed to enter semifinals though, after Wednesday's loss 0-3 to defending champion Brazil.

Before Beijing, their sole Olympic show dated back to 1984, when China appeared at the Los Angeles Games as the replacement team and finished the last in the eight competitors.

"Their competitors are very strong," reads a posting on Xinhuanet.com. "We're here to applaud them, as long as they have tried and found out where the differences are between themselves and their foreign opponents."

The women's volleyball and basketball teams, meanwhile, have both entered semifinals.

With Wednesday's defeat to Lithuania 68-94 in the quarter-final, the men's basketball team repeated their eighth-place finishing in Athens and failed to live up to their commitments of making a breakthrough on home soil.

Despite their shattered dream, avid fans vowed continued support for the 7-foot-6 NBA star Yao Ming and his team. "I support you for ever. I'll never take your victory as a 'miracle', no matter how long I have to wait," said a netizen named "kiysan_dweb9" at sina.com.

While women's soccer team still won sympathy and support after being knocked out in the quarterfinal, many Chinese fans refuse even to talk about the men's team. All were infuriated by their 0-2 defeat on Aug. 10 to Belgium and even worse, by defender Tan Wangsong and midfielder Zheng Zhi's kicking and elbowing of their opponents. Both were sent off after the attacks.

"I really don't know where the men's soccer team is leading now, after decades of promises to 'take dominance in Asia and march into the world'", said Beijing soccer fan Zeng Tao. "I see no hope in them."

(Xinhua News Agency August 20, 2008)