Deng Yaping (table tennis)
Born in Zhengzhou in 1973, she joined the national table tennis team in 1988 and won her first international title the following year. From there her success never let up — repeated wins in women's singles, doubles and mixed events at international competitions, capped by two gold medals at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and two more in Atlanta in 1996.
Ge Fei and Gu Jun (badminton)
Both from Jiangsu province, Ge Fei and Gu Jun had played doubles together since the age of nine. Ge's strength was play at the net, while Gu attacked from the back court. At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, they beat the reigning world champions from Korea, Gil Young-ah and Jang Hye-ock, in a spectacular match that was over in just 36 minutes. They went on to win the World Championship in 1997, the Asian Games in 1998, and the World Championship again in 1999, remaining unbeaten until the 2000 Japan Open — only to reclaim their title later that same year in Sydney.
Liu Xiang (athletics)
Liu Xiang competed as a high jumper as a child, until a bone-growth test showed he'd never reach the ideal height for a professional high jumper. He switched to hurdles in 1998, and by his second year had already reached the final of the World Junior Championships in Santiago, Chile, finishing fourth. In 2002 he broke Renaldo Nehemiah's junior 110m hurdles record with a sensational 13.12 seconds. A year later he won bronze at the World Indoor Championships, followed by silver in 2004. At the Athens Olympics, aged just 21, he won gold in 12.91 seconds, setting an Olympic record. Already a cult figure at home, he's China's biggest hope for the 2008 Beijing Games.
Yang Yang (S) (short track speed skating)
For the first five years of her career, Yang Yang trained alone, as no local club considered her good enough to join. At 16, she finished fifth in the 1994 final in Lillehammer. Four years later she won silver in Nagano, and in Salt Lake City in 2002 she won silver in the relay after being disqualified in the 1,500m, plus bronze in the 1,000m sprint.
Zhang Shan (shooting)
Born in Sichuan province, Zhang took up shooting at 16 and was called up to the national team five years later, the same year she won both the World Championship and the National Championship in trap shooting. At the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, competing for China in trap, she not only finished first but became the first woman ever to win a mixed-gender Olympic shooting event — after which women were barred from competing directly against men in the sport, so she was unable to defend her title in 1996. When a women's trap event was introduced at Sydney 2000, she finished eighth. In recognition of her contributions, she was named one of China's 50 greatest athletes in 1999.
