PD editorial: I am proud of you, Five-Starred Red Flag!

At the world-noticing 28th Olympic Games, Chinese good athletes, fearing no strong opponents and competing with all might, have achieved unprecedented, excellent results, making new historic breakthroughs at the Athens Olympics in China's sports and winning high honor for the motherland and the people.

The Party Central Committee and the State Council sent a telegraph to the Chinese sports delegation to the 28th Olympic Games, extending to them warm congratulations and cordial solicitude.

For many days, the Athens Olympic Games has been affecting the feeling of Chinese sons and daughters. In the competition arena, the Five-Starred Red Flag (the national flag of the People's Republic of China) was hoisted time and again, "March of the Volunteers" (the national anthem) was played again and again, stimulating popular feelings and boosting morale. The Chinese Sports Delegation won 32 gold medals, 17 silvers and 14 coppers, ranking itself second in terms of gold medals and third in terms of medals.

At the present Olympic Games, Chinese good athletes' consummate sports skill and good sportsmanship have further carried forward the Olympic spirit, and once again demonstrated to the world the Chinese nation's mental outlook of making continuous self-improvement and being enthusiastic and promising, and showed the vitality and vigor of the new-century Chinese sons and daughters in making active progress and scaling new heights, thus giving tremendous inspiration to the people of all ethnic groups of China who are united in the endeavor to build a moderate prosperous society in an all-round manner. The motherland is proud of you and the people take pride in you. Skilled athletes who are winning honor for the country, you've been exerting yourselves, the motherland and the people welcome you back victorious!

From the Chinese Sports Delegation making a breakthrough in zero gold medal for the first time in the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 1984, to jumping to the second place in terms of gold medals at the current Athens Olympic Games, Chinese sports has made progress every year and improvement in each term of the Olympic Games. Up to the end of the Athens Olympics, Chinese skilled athletes had grabbed from the summer Olympic Games 112 gold medals, this is a terrific achievement.

People are happy to see that good athletes of one generation after another, bearing the hopes of the motherland and people, cherishing high aspirations and engaging in stubborn competitions, are continuously scaling world sports peaks with extraordinary courage and brilliant achievements, fully proving the Chinese nation's capability of standing in the galaxy of the world's nations.

People of all ethnic groups of China sincerely hope that Chinese good athletes will continue to carry forward the spirit of "not getting conceited because of victory or being disheartened in case of defeat", sum up experiences, enhance their fighting will, make unrelenting efforts, constantly improve their own qualities and sporting level and bring about a balanced, all-round development of China's sporting activities, thereby making new and still greater contribution to promoting the development of the Olympic undertaking and to realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

When the country is prosperous, sports are flourishing. The good results constantly achieved by skilled athletes at the Olympic Games are an epitome of the great achievements in China's reform, opening up and socialist modernization drive. The sustained growth of China's social productive forces, the steady enhancement of its overall national strength and the continuous improvement people's physics have laid a solid material foundation for the vigorous development of the sports undertaking. The continued development of the sports undertaking and the excellent results gained by good athletes have greatly increased national cohesion and enhanced the sense of national pride.

At present, people of all ethnic groups nationwide are advancing in the great journey of building a well-off society in an all-round manner. We should learn from good athletes participating in the Olympic Games their noble thoughts and feelings of ardently loving the motherland and winning honor for the country, their high fighting will of fearing no strong opponents and valiantly engaging in competition, their collective consciousness of getting united in cooperation and in a concerted effort and their pragmatic spirit of engaging in scientific training and enduring hardships, so as to transform their fine qualities into a powerful spiritual motivation for building a well-off society in an all-round way.

Promoting physical culture and building up the people's health is of important significance for building a moderately prosperous society in all aspects and boosting people's all-round development. Without the good health of the people, there would not be a comprehensively prosperous society. The excellent performance of Chinese good athletes at the Olympic Games will further inspirit people's enthusiasm for keeping-fit and give impetus to the in-depth development of nationwide fitness campaign, thereby greatly improving the health level of Chinese people and providing an extensive mass foundation for the development of sports activities.

"I am proud of you, the Five-Starred Red Flag and take pride in you, the Five-Starred Red Flag, this is the common aspiration of the hundreds of millions of Chinese people. The 28th Olympic Games has closed, the relay baton of the grand event of the quadrennial Olympics has been passed into our hands. Taking advantage of the east wind of the victorious return of the Chinese good athletes, we should firmly grasp the various items of preparatory work for the 2008th Beijing Olympic Games.

We firmly believe that with the staunch leadership of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, with the all-out support of the people of all ethnic groups of China, with the vigorous development of China's sports undertaking, as well as with the experiences of previous Olympic Games, especially the Athens Olympic Games, to draw on, our preparatory work for the Olympic Games can definitely achieve success.

The 2008th Beijing Olympic Games can surely realize the established goal of making it a "science-technology Olympics", a "green Olympics" and a "humane Olympics", and making it an outstanding Olympics, thus leaving a good impression on the whole world.

This editorial is carried on the People's Daily newspaper, August 30, and translated by People's Daily Online