BEIJING, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- At the popular Baidu online community, Chinese netizens set up a forum for the country's first Olympic archery champion Zhang Juanjuan.

    There they shared her photos, left thousands of posts admiring her performance and gossiped about her boyfriend and possible plan to get married. One even wrote her a poem, describing her as a heroine.

    On Thursday, Zhang did make history to be the first non-Korean gold medalist for archery since the sport became an Olympic event in 1984.

    Her win was China's archers' first victory over the Republic of Korea (ROK), an old rival to whom Chinese lost the Women's Team gold medal both in Athens and here.

    Zhang was in Athens four years ago.

    "Four years ago I was the youngest one in the team. There are two 'elder sisters.' I did not need to think about other things but shooting the arrows," recalled Zhang in an online interview on Friday.

    Today she is the team leader. Two other teammates are Olympic debutants. "I have to play a role like an anchor to the whole team," she said.

    After the team lost to the ROK counterparts by one score on Aug. 10, the burden on Zhang's shoulder was much heavier but she did not buckle under in the women's individual competition.

    "I admire something in her as if she is ready for all hardship and never gives up," wrote a post in the forum.

    SURVIVOR OF TARGET PANIC

    The sudden national icon did not pick up archery by herself. "Archery picked up me," Zhang once said.

    Being a tomboy in her childhood, she tried lots of sport trainings from discus to shooting.

    Living in a village in eastern Shandong Province, her parents' plan was very simple. "We hope for her to leave the countryside through being an athlete," said Zhang's mother Sun Rongzhen.

    It remained a big target for many rural residents in the country to be a permanent urban resident.

    A coach from the Qingdao city archery team chose her at the age of 14 from a sport school's shooting team.

    "There is huge gap between ROK and our country on archery. The sport is very popular there. Archers are trained when they are seven or eight years old. But I knew nothing about archery at 14," Zhang said.

    Proven to have a gift as an archer, she came across the first and maybe biggest difficulty in the career. After one and half years of training, she suddenly found herself caught by target panic, a psychological condition that makes archers lose their accuracy.

    "It was a nightmare. The process to recover from it was long and suffering. I was left behind practising when all my teammates were out in contest. I was so lonely and anxious," she said, almost in tears, "But I just did not like to give up."

    She finally managed to return to the archery field after two years of hard training and treatment without any contest.

    On Thursday, in her village, dozens of folks and neighbors gathered in her parents' courtyard to watch her on TV. It was so crowded that some young men had to climb onto the roof of the house.

    "I am happy, too happy!" her mother said, silently weeping together with her shy father amid thunderous applause and cheers around them when she released her last arrow and led the rival by one score.

    OLD FOE, OLD FRIEND

    The ROK archer Park Sung-hyun, competing with Zhang at the final, was her old rival and friend.

    "We met in 2001. First we recognized the familiar face of each other in contests, then greet each other and later became friends who could chat for a long time," Zhang said.

    In the past four years, they did not meet as often as before. "But I am quite happy to see her in some international contests. We will hug and bring each other small gifts. I brought her Chinese snacks and she once gave me a pair of earrings," she added.

    The Olympic Champion did not get her lost. "I won but that did not mean the gap between us and our rival disappeared." Zhang said. "Not only is China challenging the ROK archers but also other countries. They invested more, invited coaches from the ROK and made great progress."