Mass Medal Preparedness

China's Olympic training system demands its athletes give their all – and not expect much in return.

It's a structured, planned and government-funded system specifically designed to churn out winners.

While other countries around the world build Olympic teams with professional training systems that raise funds through sports federations and sponsors, China continues to maintain a centralized system – modeled off of the Soviet-era sports bureaucracy – that prepares young bodies for the Olympics often from an early age.