A winning assist
China DailyRace walker Yang Jiayu and her Italian coach, Patrizio Antonio Parcesepe. Despite dealing with cultural differences and a language barrier, as well as the fierce on-field competition, Team China's foreign coaches and their assistants have hit on a medal-winning formula with the country's hard-working Olympians, leading them to a series of historic "firsts", huge ranking leaps and long-awaited revivals at the Paris Games. Guided by 42 foreign coaches and staff members from 17 countries and regions, the biggest international crew a Chinese Olympic delegation has ever hired, Team China has expanded its athletic prowess beyond its traditionally strong events to earn success in a wider range of once Western-dominated sports, as well as emerging disciplines. And China came so close — within just eight minutes of knocking the mighty Oranje off its golden throne — before the Dutch neutralized Team China's early goal with a 52nd-minute penalty corner. As the mastermind behind the David-vs-Goliath heroics, Team China's Aussie coach Alyson Annan, a two-time Olympic champion as a player with the Hockeyroos, attributed the Chinese program's rejuvenation to the country's sporting culture and her "magical" bond with her players.