Word: li
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...hole in the water for the body to follow. At first the American women, traditionally the world's best, could not match these elegant entries. They learned soon enough, but the Chinese kept improving too. As the Olympic women's springboard finals began, the question was whether Li Yihua, 21, or Li Qiaoxian, 16, the two slim, graceful Chinese divers, could take the gold over two Americans: Kelly McCormick, 24, daughter of Pat McCormick, who won springboard and platform golds in both 1952 and '56, and Chris Seufert, 27, veteran of the U.S. Olympic boycott team...
...Then she marched sturdily to the end of the board, turned, stood motionless and threw a back 2½ that missed high excellence by an ounce or two of rebounding water. Bernier won the gold by 530.70 to 527.46. Seufert, who had overcome a shaky start, won the bronze. Li Yihua and Li Qiaoxian wound up fourth and fifth...
Chinese athletes did, and for every winner piously proclaiming that the victory was "for the Motherland," another, like Featherweight Lifter Chen Weiqiang, 26, put it more personally: "I got the gold medal, and it feels good." Before leaving China for the Games, Gymnast Li Ning, 20, who won three golds, a silver and a bronze, had spoken in a similar vein: "I am going to Los Angeles to pick up gold medals. I know what I am talking about, and I mean what...
...floor exercise. The teams set up side by side at one end of the arena, the Americans on the parallel bars, the Chinese on the high. Their scores flashed seconds apart in a tit-for-tat exchange of steadily mounting tension. Johnson opened with a 9.80 to Li Yuejiu's 9.90. Hartung countered with a 9.90, while the Chinese leveled off, unable to push their scores higher. Finally, Conner topped out with a 10; the U.S. team pulled ahead...
...during the chat, Li did not shy away from mentioning the "obstacles" to international harmony-Peking's basic euphemism for U.S. support of Taiwan. All weekend the Chinese rulers would allude to that lingering obstacle. They seemed determined that no one, American or Chinese, get carried away with the effervescent bonhomie of the moment...