Perhaps more encouragingly, the country's efforts to expand its prowess beyond its traditional strengths, such as diving, table tennis and weightlifting, have yielded real progress. Team China claimed golds across 14 events－its most diverse title distribution at an overseas Olympics.

There were plenty of memorable moments off the podium too. Chinese athletes finished in the top eight places 158 times in Tokyo－another all-time high since the country's Olympic debut in 1984.

As something of a post-Games bonus, Chinese athletes have all returned home safe and clean, without a single COVID-19 case reported or any of their 226 drug tests returning a positive result.