One more day to go before the Games closes and there is little doubt China will end up being the top gold snatcher this time around.

No doubt this is worth cheers. Not just that our athletes have won more golds than even the boldest of us had imagined. We feel a lot more elated seeing them excel in areas we thought impossible.

But let us not be carried too far away from the sober truths - on the one hand, there is the so-called host country effect; on the other, we are way behind many others in many fields.

Not to say that we will not be where we are if all medals, gold, silver and bronze, are taken into account.

Few may bother to translate it into per capita terms. But in that case, we lag further behind.

Our weakness in such areas as track and field, swimming, and football, for instance, is too obvious to be ignored.

All that aside, the rich harvest should not blind us to the gap between our Olympic prominence and less impressive mass involvement in sporting activities.

Sources with the Organizing Committee of the Beijing Games reportedly said Team China's outstanding achievements are proof of the effectiveness of training systems. On which we totally agree. The existing training system is a proven formula of success in producing Olympic heroes and heroines.

But sport is more than competition, or the trophies on offer. Sports' importance lies in improving people's constitution. Which is also why we see engaging the average Chinese as an essential move in the country's pursuit of Olympic glories.

In addition to upgrading our national physique, popularizing the less practiced sports activities will in turn provide a larger pool of talents for our future Olympic presences.

Good news from a latest survey done by the China Youth News -more than half of the respondents decided to regularly take part in certain sports activities after the Games, the most popular ones being badminton and table tennis. Some sports are not favored not because they are less attractive, but that they require special venues or facilities.

Here is a message for the nation's sports authorities. Their eyes should not only be on the medal-oriented professionals.

It is not unlikely that some day we can see our own Olympic heroes and heroines from beyond the non-professional training bases.

And that will make sports even more enjoyable.