A wealth of sports apparatus including the weightlifting equipment and the hydrofoil surfing boards have made a splash at the ongoing Paris Olympic Games, presenting the strength of China's manufacturing sci-tech innovation to the world.
During this year's Olympics, weightlifting equipment like the weightlifting platform and barbells are all made by a company in north China's Hebei Province.
This company is also a supplier for the Beijing, Rio and Tokyo Olympics.
It has independently developed the technology to produce barbells in one-time molding, so that the weight error of the barbell sheet is controlled below 0.5 per mill.
Its exclusive design of 45-degree knurls on the barbell bar guarantees the safety of the athletes. And many parameters of its products exceed the standards of the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF).
"The IWF standard requires an error not heavier than 25 grams and not lighter than 12.5 grams for a 25-kg weight plate of the barbells, and we have controlled the error of all our barbell weight plates within 5 grams. And for the barbell bar, its elasticity will affect the athlete's performance in the clean and jerk process. As for the friction of the knurls, if they are too shallow, their friction will decrease. In this case, the barbell may slip out of athletes' hands during the snatch. If they are too sharp and the friction too large, then they may cut the athletes' hand skin and disrupt their performance," said Zhang Zhiguo, general manager of Zhangkong Barbell Co., Ltd.
Chinese weightlifters' shoes have been upgraded this year to increase pressure resistance and stability, so that a pair of weightlifting shoes of more than 1,200 grams can withstand more than one tonne of pressure.
"This year we have once again improved some professional technical indicators of weightlifting shoes, including the backward tilt and lateral tilt. At the same time, we have also added the carbon plate so that the upward propulsion force increases by nearly 50 percent on the basis of the original stability factor," said Li Ling, vice president of ANTA Sports Products Limited.
In the Paris Olympic Games, the hydrofoil windsurfing event made its debut as an Olympic event.
The hydrofoil surfing boards used by athletes from all over the world are all made by a Chinese enterprise in Jingzhou City, central China's Hubei Province.
The boards produced by the company are made of environment-friendly materials.
The company has also independently developed the 3D scanning and inspection equipment to improve product accuracy, and used robots to polish the boards to ensure the unimpeded speed and control of the athletes during their competition.
Besides sports equipment, 80 percent of the mascots of the Olympic Games are made by Chinese manufacturers, according to the Paris Olympic Organizing Committee.
"Made in China" shines at Paris Olympics
