No Fun and Games For Chinese Athletes

"Instead they're just symbols of national honor to be shown in public," said Zhao, now chief editor of the blog channel at Sohu.com.

Even some Chinese athletes acknowledge they lack the confidence of their American counterparts.

"We need to learn from them in that they are braver in the fight than us," said Cheng, who admitted Tuesday that she didn't want to think about the gymnastics competition anymore because it made her too sad. "Compared with them, we have less competition experience. I once flew to the U.S. and I remember they have contests almost every week, so they grow up in competition. We need to learn the confidence that they bravely show in front of everyone."

Cheng's teammate, Li Shanshan, who fell off the balance beam during her routine Tuesday night, left the floor with huge pools of tears in her eyes.

Some athletes are under such pressure they try to hide their injuries. When superstar hurdler Liu Xiang pulled out of the 100-meter hurdles because of a reoccurrence of an earlier foot injury, many shocked and angry Chinese said they felt the injury should have been publicized earlier.

On Saturday, the top-seeded badminton player, Xie Xingfang, 27, sounded defeated after winning silver in the women's singles competition to her second-seeded teammate, Zhang Ning, 33, who took the gold.

"I have already struggled my best. I am too tired to continue," Xie told reporters afterward, according to the news site Sina.com. "I never told others before that my body is full of injuries."

Asked if she would continue to compete, Xie said her injuries might not permit it. "Everyone will feel unhappy for not getting the championship. . . . For this Olympics, I tolerated a lot of pains which cannot be tolerated by ordinary people."

Even those athletes who win gold talk about their difficulties rather than their successes.

"I left home when I was little. It was always very hard and I've encountered a lot of difficulties on my way here," said Xiao Qin, who won the gold medal in the men's pommel horse Sunday. "Four years ago, my mistake caused the team to lose a medal. I criticized myself for a long time."

Not every athlete describes a life of exhaustion and pressure.

Ma Liyun, 20, joined the Guangdong Provincial Cycling Team four years ago and was smiling after finishing 16th in a motocross preliminary round Wednesday.

"The atmosphere in the field is very exciting. I don't feel there is a big distance between Western countries and China, and I have confidence that we can catch up with them. It's hard to say when, but should be very soon," she said.

Asked how she would prepare for the final, Ma added: "We think about the game and consider how to do well in the field by ourselves. I just relax and enjoy myself."

Researcher Zhang Jie contributed to this report.