China's Olympic shot put champion hopes Chinese athletes will follow in her footsteps

While reviewing the ups and downs in her career, Gong Lijiao, a three-time Olympic medalist who won gold at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, said she hopes to see "the Chinese women's shot put continue to stand on the highest podium in world competitions."

The 34-year-old’s career as a shot-putter began in 2001 when she was only 12 and, still a teenager, Gong came seventh in her first major championship at the World Athletics Championship in Osaka in 2007.

"This photo is from my first World Championships in Japan. I remember it very well because it was my first major competition, and I was quite nervous. But I finished in the top eight, which was a pretty good performance for my first time. It was then that I dared to dream that I could stand on the world's highest podium," said Gong in an interview before heading to Paris for the Summer Olympics.

Participating in the Olympics for the first time in 2008, the four-time Olympian has won one gold, one silver and one bronze in subsequent games, with her only medal miss at Rio 2016.

"I was in good condition in the first half of 2016. At that time, I was ranked number one in the world. But I think I put too much pressure on myself. It was the only game in my life that I hurried to end after throwing my first shot. After taking a break and returning to the training field, I felt very reluctant. I thought about having to face it all again and wondered what would happen if I failed again. I pulled myself out because I never give up. I felt this could not be my fate, and I thought I could be better. I regained my confidence through every training session and slowly regained my competitive spirit. From 2017 to 2021, I went on to claim multiple World Championships and Olympic titles," said Gong.

Gong, competing at her fifth Olympics in Paris, advanced to Friday’s shot put final after ranking fifth in qualification on Thursday.

"Given my age, I can't stay on the field forever. I hope that after I retire, there will be more young athletes to carry on the flag of Chinese shot put. I want to see the Chinese women's shot put continue to stand on the highest podium in world competitions," she said.

China's Olympic shot put champion hopes Chinese athletes will follow in her footsteps

Hubei released China's first pricing program for medical services with brain-computer interface (BCI) technologies this week, accelerating the cutting-edge sci-tech's pace entering people's livelihood.

The Healthcare Security Administration of Hubei Province set the maximum prices for the implantation and removal of an invasive BCI implant at 6,552 yuan (about 899.7 U.S. dollars) and 3,139 yuan respectively, and the highest price for a non-invasive BCI adaptation service at 966 yuan.

The BCI technologies are bringing revolutionary changes in the treatments of many patients, according to Professor Jiang Xiaobing with the neurosurgery department under the Union Hospital affiliated to the Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology.

"For patients with hemiplegia, blindness, or aphasia, we can use BCIs to restore some of their physiological functions. And we can also use BCI technologies to treat patients with Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, or Alzheimer's disease. And currently we don't have very effective therapies to cope with these diseases. So BCIs are bringing hopes for these patients," said Jiang.

"The next three to five years are a critical period in our development of BCI technologies. Their applications to the treatments of, say, cancers and paralyses are definitely different, so relevant products have to go through corresponding procedures (before entering the end market)," said Jiang.

In March, the National Healthcare Security Administration (NHSA) released a pricing guideline for neural system care services, specifying BCIs in an independent category.

According to the NHSA, this move aims to boost the clinical application of the cutting-edge technology to benefit patients in need, against the backdrop of BCIs' rapid development in recent years.

The guideline also outlines the pricing of invasive and non-invasive BCIs respectively based on the distinctive features of the two BCI approaches.

The guideline will pave the way for the swift translation of mature BCI technology into clinical use in the future, and offer a compass for localities nationwide to manage relevant medical services, said the NHSA.

China's first medical service pricing for brain-computer interfaces issued