The Chinese Olympians have fully reached the targets set for them for the Athens Summer Games, laid down a solid foundation for a sustainable development and further improvement of overall potential of the country's competitive sports, China's top sports official said Thursday.

And their achievement in Athens has greatly boosted their confidence and helped to mature the ranks for the 2008 Olympics inBeijing, Yuan Weimin, Minister of the State General Administration of Sports, said at a meeting Thursday at the Great Hall of the People in the Chinese capital.

Yuan was also the chef-de-mission of the Chinese Olympic delegation.

China won 32 gold, 17 silver and 14 bronze medals to be second only to the top-ranked United States (35-39-29) in the Athens Games final medal standings. Chinese athletes set six world records and 17 Olympic marks. They won medals in 55 events of 18 sports, compared with their medal performance in 47 events in 12 sports four years ago in Sydney. And 235 athletes qualified for the finals in 107 events of 23 sports.

China maintained its dominance in such sports as diving, shooting, table tennis, badminton and weightlifting, Yuan said. Chinese athletes made impressive progress in fencing and women's cycling, wrestling and archery. And they scored a major breakthrough in such sports as athletics, swimming and rowing and canoeing, where they grabbed four golds and two silvers, he added.

Yuan picked up the women's volleyball team as a good example of fighting spirit and high moral, who regained the Olympic title after 20 years' hard efforts.

What is more, the sports chief said, none of the 152 Chinese athletes who were dope-tested in Athens has returned a positive result.

The Chinese minister urged Chinese athletes to calm down, make a cool-headed analysis of what happened in Athens, sum up their experience and work out solid and practical plans for their preparations for the next Olympic Summer Games four years later in Beijing.

(Xinhua News Agency September 3, 2004)