RIO DE JANEIRO -- At the Riocentro Pavilion 3, the only sound in the table tennis arena was a steady tapping as the two competitors in the gold medal match struggled for points. Hines Ward Steelers Jersey .On one side of the table was Xue Juan. On the other, Li Qian. Both Chinese Paralympians in wheelchairs. Their match was one of two to decide a gold medal on Monday that featured athletes from China only.After Xue defeated Li, and Zhang Bian beat Gu Gai in the later match, each winner quietly acknowledged the victory, wheeled to the middle of the table and shook the hand of her countrywoman.There were no screaming fans, and little celebration. But in Rio, the scene has become routine, across the menu of sports. China is dominating the Paralympics.After competition ended on Tuesday, China held a huge lead at the top of the board with 147 total medals (63 golds) through six days of competition. The next closest country, the United Kingdom, had 75 medals in all.The Ukraine (72) was next with the United States (61) in fourth and host Brazil (43) in fifth.China has topped the medal board in the last three Summer Paralympics, beginning at the 2004 Athens Games.This year, China has more than 300 athletes, a physical representation of the countrys commitment to keeping its spot as a Paralympic powerhouse, but it can also be seen as a strategy: More athletes competing means more opportunities to collect medals.This was evident soon after China stepped foot on Brazilian soil. Last Friday, China won 14 medals in swimming, including two all-China podiums in mens 50- and 100-meter butterfly races. The victories have not stopped.Some athletes, however, have been raising questions about Chinas dominance in Rio.Philip Craven, the International Paralympic Committee president, was asked at a news conference on Monday about complaints that Brazilian competitors had been making about potential cheating by Chinese athletes.We had a very informal, short board meeting this morning of the IPC and that issue was brought up to us and it is something that we will look into in the future, not to do necessarily with doping, we always look into that anyway, but with regard to what particularly the Brazilian athletes are thinking and saying, Craven said.A spokesman for the IPC later said Craven was referring primarily to whether some Chinese athletes had been classified properly. Russia was banned from Rio for systematic doping, raising suspicion about cheating generally.The Paralympic Games, which date back to an English competition in 1948 and became the Paralympics in 1960, were once an event in which the United States routinely topped the medal count.The U.S. finished first in medals for nine consecutive Paralympics from 1964 to 1996. China, meanwhile, did not begin sending athletes to the Paralympics until the 1984 Games.The 2008 Olympic and Paralympic Games were awarded in 2001 to Beijing over four other cities. Three years later, at the 2004 Athens Games, China not only cracked the top five in total medals for the first time but also placed first.Penny Briscoe, the British chef de mission in Rio, said the value in winning a bid to host the Summer Games cannot be underestimated in relation to the development of sport for the Paralympics.Briscoe recalled jumping and screaming alone in her house when London was announced as the host city for 2012. Even though the UK was the home of the Paralympic Movement, and had already seen success in the past, winning the bid to host the Summer Games led to an increased focus on the Paralympics.It was massive and such a morale boost, Briscoe said in a phone interview. It gave everyone maybe more sense of purpose than any other four years.Matt Cramer, director of high performance for United States Paralympics, said the U.S. often has different challenges than some of the other high profile names atop the Paralympic leaderboard.One thing is that we are creative but we are also very smart with our resources, because we get no federal funding, Cramer said in a phone interview.As a result, the American Paralympic program invests in initiatives, both long and short term, that are aimed at identifying and developing the athletes who show potential.We gauge success in the most simplistic way -- we look at an athlete that is in the system and has shown a positive trajectory that will hopefully lead to medal, Cramer said. But we dont just hope and cross our fingers, we really invest in them.China, too, has invested in long term plans for success in the Paralympics. In 2007, the huge China Disability Sports Training Centre was opened in Beijing.Britain also invests a lot in its Paralympic program, though Briscoe said it can be difficult to compare other countries to China because of the sheer size of its disabled population. In 2012, the Beijing Review reported that Chinas disabled population was about 85 million. According to the United Nations, the entire population of Germany entering 2016 was about 80 million.Regardless of the number of athletes competing for each nation, it is still up to the individual athlete to win.In the Olympic Aquatics Stadium on Tuesday, China was at it again.Yang Bozun and Zhang Xiaotong claimed gold medals and world records in the 100-meter mens and womens breaststroke finals for blind competitors. Neither was the top finisher in qualifiers.By the end of the night, China had won eight medals and broken five world records.After her race, Zhang was asked about the secret to Chinas success at the Paralympic Games.It is because we train very hard in China and it is a whole teamwork for the entire China team, Zhang said through a translator.Whatever it is seems to be paying off.---This story has been corrected to show that the table tennis was played in Riocentro Pavilion 3, not Riocentro Pavilion 2. Bruce Gradkowski Jersey . Having already announced that the race will start May 9 with three stages in Northern Ireland and Ireland and finish in Trieste on June 1, the rest of the route was unveiled Monday. Merril Hoge Jersey . The players spoke Jan. 13 during a Major League Baseball Players Association conference call after Rodriguez sued the union and Major League Baseball to overturn an arbitrators decision suspending him for the 2014 season and post-season. http:///...ner-Steelers-Jersey/ . The team says the Spain international has a muscle pull in his right leg. Barcelona hosts third-division side Cartagena in the return leg of their round-of-32 tie after winning their first meeting 4-1. ZURICH -- Doping investigator Richard McLarens final report on state-backed cheating in Russia is several months from completion, casting fresh doubt on the nations hosting of winter sports this season.We are focusing on winter sports athletes first, McLaren told The Associated Press on Friday. We will get that information out as quickly as we can produce it.The Canadian law professors interim report for the World Anti-Doping Agency implicating more than 20 summer and winter sports in Russia was published in July.It led to a chaotic legal process for Russian athletes to be blocked or approved for competition at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.McLaren never set a deadline for his final report, though many expected progress before the winter sports season starts to peak in November.Its urgent to get the report out as quickly as possible, McLaren said.After the powerful first report was published, the International Olympic Committee advised winter sports bodies to freeze their preparations for major events in Russia in 2016 and find host cities in other countries.That interim order affected figure skating and ski jumping before a scheduled review by the IOC executive board at a Dec. 6-8 meeting.McLarens new timetable suggests that Russian-hosted events in early 2017 are at risk, inccluding world championships in bobsled and skeleton plus World Cup events in at least five winter disciplines. Lawrence Timmons Jersey. Though his final report is at least several months away, McLaren could send evidence within weeks to sports governing bodies if it suggests doping by individuals.We havent reported any of it to any sporting federation at this stage. When its done, we will, McLaren said earlier, on the sideline of a sports ethics conference hosted by FIFA.WADA appointed McLaren in May to investigate claims made in American media by the laboratory director who oversaw drug testing at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. The Russian official alleged a conspiracy by state authorities to cover up athletes doping and help Russia top the medals table at its home Winter Games.McLaren delivered a damning 103-page document that detailed a plot to swap out Russian athletes doping-tainted urine samples from 2011 through 2015.In July, McLaren asked for more time to complete his investigation.We will also report on information we had that we didnt have time to analyze in the last report and see if it either makes the picture bigger, clearer or changes it, he said Friday. Cheap NFL JerseysCheap Jerseys China ' ' '
