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For years, observers have predicted that the Chinese state-run sports system would be reformed after the Beijing Games. After all, it is one of the last real bastions of socialist, top-down control in China, where most businesses have been reformed and privatized.

The question now is how much and how fast change will take place on the heels of China's most successful Olympic performance, as they topped the gold medal count for the first time (Medal standings).

"People within the Sports Ministry think the status quo is great and they will point to the gold medals as proof they are right," says Terry Rhoads of Zou Marketing, a Shanghai-based sports consultancy. Rhoads has been working in the Chinese sports world since 1994, when he opened Nike's offices here and he is an avid advocate of reform.

"The medals are the upside and the downside is the cost to the 400-million children, 20 and under, who don't get much of a chance to play scholastic or extracurricular sports because the system is geared only towards raising elite athletes who can win medals," says Rhoads.

"As China modernizes, why wouldn't you want its sports system to catch up with Western countries the same way so many other aspects of Chinese life have," he asks. "There's tremendous pride and passion about the medals but changing the system is not a bad thing."

The advantages of the state run system are numerous in terms of pure athletic development. At a news conference with the eight gold medal winning weightlifters, an obviously proud Ma Wenguang, president of the Chinese Weightlifting Association, gave a simple answer when asked the secret to China's success in the sport: "recruiting."

"We have weightlifting on the county and provincial level as well as national," he said. "We are always looking for promising athletes and the central government not only pay attention to the professional athletes...but also to the competitors at a grassroots level."

There are human costs to these systems, however, which is one reason many call for reform. Athletes leave their families to live at the schools as young as six years old. There are legions of sad stories regarding the harsh life of the many athletes who never quite become elite athletes but have not really been prepared for anything else.

China has a vast interior filled with farmers and manual laborers living a hand-to-mouth existence. The lure of free education and room and board as well as potential glory and lifetime comfort is hard to resist. But China also has a rapidly growing middle and upper class population that is not anxious to send their only children away from home.

Running these state programs is also very expensive. The government may have a hard time justifying the costs without the prospect of another Games stirring passions, and with so many other pressing needs, from health care to raising the living standards of the rural poor to rebuilding from the Sichuan earthquake. These realities will clash with China's fascination and affection for the Games and its performance.

"As a general theory many people agree that the system needs to be reformed but from which angle, to what degree and in how long a time span are all still being debated," says Tian Wei, host of China Central Television's Olympics programming. "I'm sure that the Olympics achievements of Team China will be an interesting reference point for all camps in the debate."