Gymnast Li Ning became a Chinese hero in 1984 when he won six medals at the Los Angeles Olympics, the country’s first appearance at a summer games in 32 years. By 1990 he had set up his own sportswear company, Li-Ning. It was an immediate hit, and in 1999 the company’s revenues in China reached Rmb700m, more than twice Nike’s Rmb300m and Adidas’s Rmb100m.