CRI听力:Chinese Delegation Performs Best in Olympics Abroad

Liu Peng, head of the Chinese delegation, has hailed the performance of Chinese athletes at the London Games.

"The Chinese delegation has won 87 medals, including 38 gold, 27 silver and 22 bronze. We rank the second in terms of gold medals and the number of medals in total. Moreover, our athletes have broken six world records and six Olympic records. I would say our performance has been the best ever in an Olympics outside China."

Liu said that although China has made historic breakthroughs and achievements in events such as swimming, sailing and water ballet, he said ball games were a weak point for the Chinese athletes.

"This is an alarm for us. Though in this Olympics, we optimized the structure of the events and made a lot of improvement in some of the events, we still need to make great effort on collective ball games."

In London China's delegation has also faced a number of controversies.

Chinese athletes all took warning from the badminton women's double team's "negative competition", as well as the "doping speculation" centered on swimmer Ye Shiwen.

"China's firm position and great effort on anti-doping campaign has won the appreciation and applause from the WADA and other international organizations. Those groundless slanders and speculations were really unfair. I think people should admit the facts and show their respect to our athletes."

Meanwhile, Jacques Rogge, Chairman of the International Olympic Committee, has also spoken highly of the media.

"I would say this is the game for you, ladies and gentlemen. This is a game for the media. Because we clearly have this rule which might be absolute in the Olympic Charter that say that there is no matter ranking. Of course there is a matter ranking, not by the IOC, but by the media."

Indeed, sports are not for the sake of ranking.

As Liu Peng put it, the outstanding performance of Chinese athletes at the London Games should help make sports more popular among the Chinese people.

For CRI, I'm Qi Zhi.