QUOTE(obtuse_edge @ Aug 11 2008, 11:33 PM)

China's men's soccer team is pathetic. So is the men's basketball team. As well as men's swimmers.
China really needs to work on improving on these sports. Its embarrassing.
Everyone knows that we are weak in these sports and we have a long long way to go, but things aren't that bad except in men's soccer.
We won our first ever Olympic silver medal in swimming. That, AFAIK, is a breakthrough for our men's swimming team.
Our men's basketball team beat Spain in the preliminary round so the qualifing standing now is one win and one lost.
This is The Olympic Games we are dealing with and we are competing against the very best and strongest from around the world. It is easy to fault our basketball players when they lost to team USA, but we also have to recognize how far the team has improved from the days at Athens, and is a far cry from Sydney.