Olympic Results 2012: China Makes Strong Start in the Medal Race

The Chinese are becoming the next medal-winning super power, starting off with three medals already in the first half of the first day of competition.

They started off with Yi Siling winning the gold medal in the women's 10-meter air rifle competition, then Yu Dan won the bronze in that same competition. After that, Wang Mingjuan won the gold medal in women's 48-kilogram weightlifting.

Yi Siling - China's First Gold Medalist in 2012

Yi won the first gold medal of the 2012 Olympics with her win in the women's 10-meter air rifle competition. She has been working hard, came into the games as the favorite to win this event and she didn't let anyone down. She was quoted by the official Olympics page as saying:

"

I'm very happy. I want to say thanks to China, to my mother and father. I'm very excited and happy. I have been shooting since I was 13-years-old. I've been up since 5 a.m. this morning. There was a lot of pressure on me.

"

She lived up to the pressure and is known for having ice water running through her veins. She had previously won the world competition in the same event two years ago back in Munich. Yi is the best 10-meter shooter in the world and her gold medal just proves it.

Wang Mingjuan - China's First Gold Medalist in 2012's Weightlifting Competitions

Wang Mingjuan won the gold in the women's 48 kilogram (105.8 pound) competition. She lifted a combined 205 kilograms (452 pounds) to register the best total of the competition. The competitions that she competes in for the weightlifting are the snatch, and the clean and jerk.

The snatch starts with the weight on the ground and then gets moved to a position directly above the weightlifter's head. In this, Wang registered a 91 kg (205 pound) lift. In the clean and jerk, which adds a step of putting it on the shoulders before lifting above the head, she registered a 114 kg (215 pound) lift.

Wang has been dominant in the sport and only continued this thus far in London.

Yu Dan - China's First Bronze Medalist in 2012

Yu Dan was the other medal winner for the Chinese in the 10 meter air rifle event, winning the bronze. She was continually behind both Yi and the Sylvia Bogacka from Poland. After placing in third, the Chinese now have three medalists in the Olympics this year.

They have kicked off with an extremely strong start to the Games, and look for China to have yet another great medal showing in London this year.

Scott Carasik is a Featured Columnist and Trends and Traffic Writer for Bleacher Report. As a Featured Columnist, he covers the Atlanta Falcons, NFL and NFL Draft. He is also the Falcons analyst at Drafttek and also runs the NFL Draft Website ScarDraft.com and the host of Kvetching Draftniks Radio.

Follow @scar988