- Sun Yang and Ye Shiwen, each with two Olympic gold medals, led the Chinese swimmers to major breakthroughs at London Olympic Games.
China registered its best ever Olympic swimming result in London by finishing second overall, only after the United States, with 10 medals, and went on to finish runner-up at the short course world championships in Istanbul. [Related: Sun breaks world record in 1,500 meters freestyle Ye shatters world record to win swimming gold]
Yearender 2012 Series about China sports:
Harvest year for Chinese athletics
Bitter-sweet year for Chinese basketball
Chinese badminton makes history but overshadowed by match-fixing scandal