The 2010 Vancouver Olympics have come to a close. The medal count is in. And now, China is calling its 8th place medal ranking a "breakthrough."

Team China won a total of 11 medals, including five gold, two silver and four bronze. This is a feat for China, which won its first Winter gold only eight years ago at the Salt Lake City Olympics. 

"We have made an important breakthrough at these Games," Xiao Tian, deputy chef de mission of China's largest ever winter sports delegation, told Xinhua.

"Actually the five-gold finish was within my expectation before we set off for the Games, but I couldn't say that at that time because I would not want to put any pressure on the athletes. Now I can speak out."

Looking Forward

Meanwhile, speed skating sweetheart Wang Meng is already talking about retiring, after becoming China's first female athlete to win three gold medals in a single Olympics.

"I'm now nearly 25 years old and it is four years to the Sochi Winter Games and I will be 29. It is hard for me to imagine competing at the Olympics again. I am very tired now," Wang, who won the women's 500m, 1,000m and 3,000m relay gold medals at the Vancouver Games, told China Daily.

2000 Summer Olympics Medal May Be Revoked

Still, the story of China's success at the Winter Games is becoming clouded by another tale -- one that dates back 10 years ago. The six Chinese female gymnasts who won a team bronze at the 2000 Sydney Olympics will likely be forced to return their medals, after an International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) probe found team mate Dong Fangxiao guilty of age fraud.

The gymnastics federation claims that Dong was actually 14 for the 2000 Summer Games, and that while her registered birth date was 20 January 1983 in Sydney, for the 2008 Beijing Games her birth date was declared as 23 January 1986. Under FIG age rules, gymnasts younger than 16 are forbidden to participate in major championships and the Olympics to protect young athletes' health.

If the FIG request to strip the Chinese team of its Olympic bronze medal is accepted by the International Olympic Committee, the American women's team (which finished fourth) would move into third place.

Photo by Xinhua