At 9 a.m. sharp, in a massive gymnasium just a block from Beijing’s Temple of Heaven, the Chinese women’s weight-lifting team reports for duty. Soon the training hall echoes with the sound of weights crashing to the ground. The air grows thick with a concentration of sweat and the particles of chalk that help lifters get a firm grip on the bar. These athletes are the best of the best; within the space of an hour, I see an Olympic record surpassed and a world record nearly equaled. It’s another day on the job for the squad that is expected to run the table at the London Games. As she steps up to a bar that holds more than twice her body weight, Li Xueying has no idea how much she’s about to lift. Numbers are the coaches’ responsibility; hers is to heft unquestioningly. This is the bond of trust that develops between a coach and an athlete who starts heaving weights at age 10. In a split-second burst of energy, the 22-year-old thrusts her arms into the air and a 132-kg barbell floats above her head. When Li drops the bar after the successful clean and jerk, the floor reverberates so much, I feel the thrum in my teeth. Bound for London in the 58-kg weight class, Li takes little time to savor her stupendous training lift. Instead the 2009 world champion bows her head to the assembled team officials, then steps back to practice a minute shoulder movement that needs honing. When I shake her hand later, her callused palm feels like a sheet of sandpaper. Her collarbone is bruised purple from the bar. The daughter of wheat farmers from central China’s Henan province, Li shows little anticipation of her Olympic debut. “My responsibility is to my country,” she says. “I put my heart in weight lifting because I don’t want to disappoint my coaches and team leaders … I wouldn’t say I’m excited about London.” She might as well be going for a banking conference. (VIDEO: How They Train: … Continue reading China’s Gold Standard