Olympic champion confident in Chinese weightlifters in Beijing Games
23/7/2008 17:50
Lin Weining, weightlifting winner in the women's 69kg category at the 2000
Sydney Olympic Games expressed her confidence in the Chinese team in Jinan ,
East China in Jinan, capital city of East China's Shandong province today.
"I
am confident in whoever will be finally assigned to compete in the upcoming
Beijing Olympic Games, as Chinese women weightlifters are quite competitive,"
said Lin, just finishing her relay as the seventh torchbearer.
The last leg
of Olympic torch relay in the province kicked off in Jinan this morning. The
torch was passed through Qingdao, Linyi, Qufu and Tai'an in the previous two
days.
Lin, born of a peasant family in Weifang city of central Shandong won
at the Sydney Olympic Games China's third weightlifting gold medal in the
women's 69-kg class, also the first for Shandong province in Olympic
Games.
The Olympic champion kept long hair and cosmeticized herself today for
the special relay, quite different from her athletics style when she was still
in the national team.
"The spirits of sports is to overtake yourself. Not
only does weightlifting requires strength and wisdom, but also needs
persistence," said the Olympic champion, recalling her memory of her service in
the national team.
"Sports has changed my life and weightlifting made me
mentally stronger and easier when facing difficulties," she said, regarding that
she was actually passing the torch of sports spirit shared by all
humankind.
Lin is now a clerk in the Shandong Sports Federation after she
retired from weightlifting team in 2001, serving social sports, which she
thought to be beneficial to the public health.
"I am trying to work as
actively as I was competing on the stage despite of my retirement because the
Olympic spirit has been imparted deeply into my life," Lin said holding the
Olympic torch.
Xinhua
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