This Day, That Year: July 29

Editor's note: This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China.

On July 29, 1984, Xu Haifeng took the gold medal in the individual free pistol 60 shots at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, as seen in the item from China Daily. It was China's first Olympic gold medal.

China went on to win 15 gold, eight silver and nine bronze medals at the Games.

Xu retired in 1995 and became a coach for the national shooting team.

Since Xu's win, the country has won 224 golds. In the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Chinese athletes won the most gold medals－51, 15 more than the United States.

After third-place finish in the medal tally at the 2016 Rio Games, China is ready to rebound and achieve its target of finishing second in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics－on the strength of probable gold medals in diving, weightlifting, table tennis, badminton, gymnastics and shooting.

In the past decades, Chinese athletes have won global fame.

Dubbed the "Prince of Gymnastics", Li Ning won six medals at the 1984 Olympics and has established his own sportswear brand.

Diver Gao Min won the women's springboard championship at the fifth World Swimming Championships. She won more than 70 gold medals in her career and she is also the two-time gold medalist in the springboard events at the 1988 and 1992 Olympic Games.

Basketball player Yao Ming played for the Houston Rockets in the NBA from 2002 to 2011.

He was selected for the NBA All-Star Game eight times and is now president of the Chinese Basketball Association.

Tennis player Li Na was the first player from Asia to win a singles Grand Slam. She won the 2011 French Open singles title and the 2014 Australian Open final.

She also became the first Asia-born player to be formally inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.