As for some less popular sports such as canoeing, France adopts a different practice, with athletes in these sports also holding regular jobs.

According to Tony Estanguet, France's gold medal-winning slalom canoeist at the London Olympics, canoeists usually draw salaries from their nominal jobs at state-run enterprises and government agencies in order to fund their training activities, despite the fact that they never actually work for those organizations.

Estanguet stated that the government does this because less popular sports generate little commercial interest.

Another example is that of two French Olympic synchronized swimmers who, despite being college students, train for five to eight hours every day. By this token, it is their studies rather than their training which appear amateur.

The same is true of athletes from other countries who put in the same level of effort to train for top competitions. These days, it is extremely rare for such athletes to win global titles merely by training in their spare time after working at a regular job.

France's women's 10m air pistol silver medalist Celine Goberville is a case in point. Born into a family with a rich shooting heritage, Goberville started her training at the age of 9, joined her parents and sister in the national team at 14, and began to participate in competitions at 15, seizing French, European and world shooting titles.

In theory, the now 26-year-old shooter is still an undergraduate majoring in Kinesitherapy, but apparently all her efforts go into shooting. She trains at a local shooting club for five hours every day, coached by her father. At weekends, Goberville competes in shooting competitions.

In terms of her training, the French shooter is no different from a professional Chinese athlete. The only possible difference may lie in the fact that athletes from Western countries have to pay all their competition expenses before they make a name for themselves in their chosen sport.

Goberville is expected to receive €20,000 from the French government for her silver medal-winning performance, having already received a payment after she made the Olympic team.

In 2011, the government offered her a total of €10,000 in subsidies for shooting events, nearly half of the country's statutory minimum annual salary. In addition, she also received €13,000 in sponsorship for her Olympic adventure from the local government and a number of companies.