China will send a record 407 athletes to compete in 26 sports at
the upcoming Athens Olympics Games, aiming to finish top three in
the medal standings, said vice Chef-de-Mission Li Furong here on
Tuesday.
The delegation, announced here in a press conference, will be
headed by Yuan Weimin, Minister of the State Administration of
Sports, and also consists of 226 officials, interpreters and
medical staff.
"We have set two records this time," Li said. "The first is
thenumber of athletes, and the second is the sports we will compete
in."
China finished third in the medal standings four years ago in
Sydney with 28 golds, 16 silvers and 15 bronzes, behind the
UnitedStates and Russia.
Li thinks traditional powers United States and Russia are the
strongest and should be in a group of their own in Athens while
China should be in the second "group" which includes the likes of
Australia, France, Germany and South Korea.
"Our target is to ensure our leading position in the second
group," he said. "Specifically, I think we can win some 20 gold
medals, it's very difficult to capture as many as we earned in
Sydney because only 84 athletes out of the 407 have Olympic
experiences. And 23 competed in the Atlanta Games, 79 in Sydney and
18 in both."
But he stressed that winning good results is just one of the two
goals for the Chinese delegation, the other is to give
Olympicexperience to the young athletes who are medal hopefuls in
the 2008 Olympics Games in Beijing.
"323 of them are first timers," he said. "And the average age of
the 407 athletes is only 23.3, down 0.5 compared with that in
Sydney. And 227 athletes are under 23.3."
Li, a former three-time world table tennis silver medalist,
said, "After tasting the Olympics for the first time, they can
definitely do better in the 2008 Beijing Games."
The oldest athlete is 43-year-old sharpshooter Wang Yifu, who
will compete in his sixth Olympic Games and expect to win his
second gold medal. The youngest is female swimmer Zhang Tianyi, who
is only 14.
And as before, China will rely more on women athletes than men
in Athens. Among the 407 athletes, women account for 269 and men
for only 138.
Li said that Chinese athletes will face harder challenge in
Athens than four years ago.
"In our potential medal events like table tennis, diving and
badminton, either Australia or South Korea can pose serious threats
to us," he said. "And we cannot afford to any mistakes in
gymnastics, shooting and fencing before our Russian rivals."
China has competed in five Olympics since they returned to the
International Olympic Committee (IOC) in late 1970s. They finished
fourth in the medal table three times in 1984 Los AngelesGames (15
golds), 1992 Barcelona (16), 1996 Atlanta (16) and ranked third in
2000 Sydney (28). They collected only five golds in the 1988 Seoul
Games.
(Xinhua News? Agency? July 22, 2004)