Team China     1     (identify) as the third-place finisher of the     2     (man) 4x100m relay at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, according to the official website of IAAF on March 21st.

The Chinese team of Su Bingtian, Xie Zhenye, Tang Xingqiang and Wu Zhiqiang finished     3     (four) after clocking     4     national record of 37.79 seconds at last year’s Tokyo Olympics with Italy, Great Britain and Canada     5     (rank) the top three.

    6     , Team Great Britain was stripped of (被剥夺) its silver medal after its first-leg runner Chijindu Ujah was confirmed to     7     (break) anti-doping (反兴奋剂) regulations,     8     resulted in the upgrade of Canada and China to silver and bronze     9     (medal) respectively.

It was the first Olympic medal won by China in a relay event and the second overall in a sprint event     10     retired track star Liu Xiang’s gold medal finish in the 110m hurdles at the 2004 Games in Athens.

2 . When Baron Pierre de Coubertin set up the first modern Olympics in Athens in 1896, he declared that “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning, but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering, but fighting well.”     1    

The hosting countries spend huge amounts of money to hold the 16-day event.     2     And that money is not spent to come in fourth; the only thing that matters is having “the best Games” and winning medals—preferably gold.

The figures are enormous! Depending on who you ask, China spent 40 billion dollars on the Beijing Olympics and Russia invested 50 billion in Sochi. In terms of money for athletes, the UK spent over 400 million dollars supporting 1,300 top competitors. This funding is directly linked to success: those who fail to achieve their targets will have their funding cut and, in some cases, completely removed.     3    

In both sports and life, you tend to get what you pay for.     4     China came in first in Beijing, and Great Britain got its highest ranking in over 100 years in 2016. The question is whether this search for success at all costs comes at the expense of investing in something which is arguably more valuable: local clubs and competitions; facilities for people to stay healthy and play for fun.

    5     However, this feeling is only temporary, while taking part in regular exercise and sports has been shown to have long-term physical and psychological benefits. Given this, surely spending more money on increasing sports participation from the lowest levels up would be a better way of tackling some of the health and social challenges that many countries face.