China did not win an Olympic medal until 1984

While China is now a dominant force in the Olympic games, that dominance only started relatively recently. They won their first medal, which also happened to be their first gold medal, in 1984, when Xy Haifeng won the gold in shooting. Since then China is one of the highest-ranked countries for the summer Olympics. After Haifeng won in 1984, the youngest Chinese athlete ever won a gold medal in 1992. Fu Mingxia, only 13 at the time, won the gold medal in platform diving, making her the second-youngest individual medalist ever.