Chinese sports enthusiasts and leaders are gradually coming to terms to their athletes' current medal haul during the 2016 Rio Olympic Games as Great Britain comes close to replacing China in second place.
An article from The Guardian titled "The Great Fall of China" sums up how leaders and sports fans are gradually accepting that their athletes are far from bringing in the expected number of medals they hoped for.
When the first Olympic Games held in a South American country commenced, China had proudly predicted a gold medal count of 30 to 36 from their 416 athletes who will be participating in 210 events in 26 different kinds of sports.
Featured in the Global Times, the prediction revealed which Olympic events are among China's "favored sports" including table tennis, badminton, diving, and shooting.
As clearly stated in the article, China was hoping to replicate performances of their Olympians during the London and Beijing Olympics.
Unfortunately, the country is now in third place in terms of the total number of gold medals.
Team China is also barely keeping the second spot in the overall number of medals as Great Britain shows real grit and earns a total of 50 medals which is 1 medal short of what Chinese athletes currently has, based on official medal tally from NBC Olympics.
Of course, China has to accept the fact that there is so much an athlete can to win and some Chinese netizens appear to be beginning a trend in acceptance, a rare feat from citizens of a proud nation.
"It doesn't matter how many gold medals we have, as long as all the athletes can come home safely," posted an Olympics fan over China's Twitter-like microblogging platform, Sina Weibo.
The Global Times also featured a couple of unexpected reactions from Chinese sports fans in a front-page article with the headline "Public relax over medal tally."