Word: squad
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...past four years, China's Olympic Waterloo has haunted the men's gymnastics squad. Consistent world champions, China's tumblers disintegrated at the Athens games, finishing a shocking fifth, with Japan's gymnasts snatching the gold...
...American merited a "fantastic" - the team got down to the business of winning gold for China. The start was shaky. In the second rotation, Huang Xu fumbled on the pommel horse, earning a score of 14.750 and putting pressure on pommel world champion Xiao Qin, who redeemed the squad with 16.175. (Xiao had slipped on the pommel four years ago in Athens, contributing to the team's implosion.) Despite Xiao's clutch routine, at the end of the second rotation, China was in fifth place, with France and the U.S. in first and second, respectively...
...When the scoreboard showed the final tally for the host team, an awe-inspiring 286.125 under a scoring system that debuted at this Olympics, the Chinese squad dissolved into tears - a rare show of emotion. The tears flowed particularly freely for Zou Kai, a 1.5m tall Olympic first-timer, whose fluid performance on the horizontal bar capped the night's performance. "It's fantastic," said the native of Sichuan province, who spent nervous hours waiting to hear that his parents were safe after the May earthquake struck. "I told myself, 'Feel free and be yourself,' and it worked...
...China's diving squad is used to ruling the board. Four years ago in Athens, the Chinese won six out of a possible eight diving golds, delivering more victories to their homeland than any other national squad. At this year's World Cup, the Chinese were even more commanding, capturing all but one of the eight golds on offer. (The sole miss came from the men's individual 10m platform event...
...left many Chinese divers with permanent eye injuries. After detaching a retina, Hu Jia, a Chinese gold medalist in Athens, told the Chinese press that he would nonetheless dedicate himself to striking gold in Beijing "unless my eyes are really blind." He ended up missing the 2008 Olympic squad because of injury...