So at least those elite athletes living in the clouds must be happy, right? Maybe not. Liu Xiaobo does some research and uncovers the sacrifices that those icons of state glory are forced to make. From childhood, they enter government-run sports schools where they live in special dormitories, are completely cut off from the outside world, and submit to training almost military in nature. They are told that “to win Olympic glory for the motherland is a sacred mission entrusted to us by Party Central.” In training for the 2008 Games, Xian Dongmei, winner of the gold in judo, had to leave her 18-month-old daughter for a whole year. Cao Lei, winner of the gold in weightlifting, did not know until after the Games that her mother had died during the training period; the authorities had kept the news from her, afraid that the distraction might compromise her shot at gold. Chen Yibing, a gymnast, said in an interview: “You have no control over your own life. The coach is always right there with you. Someone is always watching you; even the physicians and the cooks in the cafeteria watch you. You’ve got no choice: you have to submit to the training. You can’t let others down.”

China’s Olympic divers, Liu found, are selected when they’re as young as five or six years of age. Chinese health-care professionals know that diving at this age can do permanent harm to one’s retinas. A doctor for the Olympic diving team told a journalist in 2007 that the retinas of 26 of the 184 members of the diving team were damaged. Gold-medalist Guo Jingjing, who had been recruited to dive at age six, had gone nearly blind.