In the year of 1976, when Yuan Weimin, China's women volleyball head coach then, and the 16-year-old Lang Ping met at the training center for the first time, neither of them realized that a great chapter to unfold.

"We didn't know [if we could compete in the world]. The coach challenged your limits in every training session. Sometimes, I had to practice spiking from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m.," said Lang, whose "grueling training" memories resonated by many Chinese athletes of that era, when the training conditions of the young and impoverished country were far behind the world.

"We were given two suits of clothes and two pair of shoes every year. The shoes scuffed quickly and raised many blisters on my heels, while the clothes needed to be mended multiple times," said Fang Fengdi, who shares the same age as her country, captained China's women basketball team in late 1970s.

Despite innumerable obstacles of the early days, sports started to emerge from scratch in China.

In 1952, Chairman Mao Zedong set the principle of "promoting physical culture and sports; strengthening the people's physique."

In 1959, Rong Guotuan won the men's singles at the 1959 world table tennis championship in Germany to be the first world champion representing the new China.

One year later, the Chinese mountaineering team completed the historic reach to the summit of Qomolangma via the north face.

"We knew we were left behind. We worked as hard as possible in order to catch up with the world level," said Fang, who led her team to clinch its first ever Asian champions in 1976.

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