MOMENT OF GLORY: Chinese speed skater Wang Meng (right) shouts with excitement after being the first to cross the finishing line at the women's 1,000-meter speed skating final at the Vancouver Olympics on February 26 (XU JIAJUN)

Providing its brilliant performance at the Vancouver Winter Olympics, Team China took home five gold, two silver and four bronze medals in short-track speed skating, figure skating, freestyle aerials and curling.

"China made historic breakthroughs in winter sports at the Vancouver Games," said Xiao Tian, Deputy Chef-de-Mission of the Chinese Delegation, a day before the Games concluded on February 28. The country had consecutive two gold finishes in Salt Lake City in 2002 and Turin in 2006.

China sent its largest winter Olympic delegation to Vancouver, with 90 athletes taking part in the Games. China ranked seventh in the medal tally with 11 medals—the first time China entered the top eight.

In Vancouver, the Chinese broke two world and four Olympic records in ice, snow, individual, pairs, team and relay events.

In short-track speed skating, China swept the women's events by grabbing all four gold medals. Twenty-four-year-old Wang Meng also became the first Chinese skater to win three golds at a single Winter Games. She successfully defended her women's 500-meter title at 43.048 seconds, then led her team of Zhou Yang, Sun Linlin and Zhang Hui, to a dramatic victory in the women's 3,000-meter relay after the four-time Olympic champion South Korea was disqualified for impeding. In the 1,000-meter, she fought a bad cold and tough rivals from the United States and South Korea to win her third gold.

BRILLIANT DEBUT: Four members of the Chinese women's curling team, who took part in the Winter Olympics for the first time, embrace after crushing the Swiss team to win a bronze medal at the Vancouver Olympics on February 26 (CHEN XIAOWEI)

Wang's teammate Zhou made a perfect debut, beating three South Koreans to take the gold in the women's 1,500-meter final, setting an Olympic record of 2 minutes and 16.993 seconds.

The Chinese men's team finished fourth in the men's 5,000-meter relay, concluding their Olympic journey without any medals. The young team's impressive performance, however, is a foresight of things to come in future Winter Olympics.

In figure skating, the gold and silver medals in the pairs figure skating were pocketed by Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo, and Pang Qing and Tong Jian.

Shen and Zhao have become the first ever non-European couple to win gold in Olympic pairs free skating history. The comeback pair also made history for China by winning China's first gold for figure skating at Winter Olympics.

In freestyle aerials, although narrowly missing gold medals, the silver and bronze went to Li Nina and Guo Xinxin in the women's category. Liu Zhongqing took the bronze in the men's category.

Another two bronzes were awarded to the Chinese women's curling team and Wang Beixing for the women's 500-meter speed skating race.

Other Chinese who didn't make it to the podium also shone in Vancouver as seven out of eight Chinese skiers advanced to the men's and women's finals in the freestyle aerials events. Liu Jiayu produced China's best fourth-place finish in the snowboarding ladies' halfpipe, making the Chinese hopeful of even better results at these events in Sochi, Russia, in four years.