**Beijing Winter Olympics: China’s media grapples with lighter medal haul**
**(CNN) — **China’s state-run media has acknowledged the country’s relatively modest performance at the Beijing Winter Olympics, as the host nation fell short of its self-imposed target of winning the most gold medals and finished third in the overall standings.
Prior to the Games, Chinese officials had set an ambitious goal of topping the medal table for the first time ever at a Winter Olympics, both in terms of golds and total medals. However, China ultimately finished with nine golds, four silvers and two bronzes, behind Norway (16-8-13) and Germany (12-10-5).
The result marked a significant drop-off from the country’s performance at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, where it finished with a record haul of 1 Golds, 6 Silvers and 2 Bronzes, placing third overall.
China’s state-run media, which is typically triumphalist in its coverage of sporting events, has taken a more muted tone in its assessment of the Beijing Games. The official Xinhua news agency said in a commentary that China’s performance was .
