Chinese Sports Gear up for 2008 Beijing Olympics

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, July 10, 2002

Chinese Sports Gear up for 2008 Beijing Olympics

Could it be the best ever Olympics if everything goes smoothly except that the host Olympians' performances are not good enough?

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Could it be the best ever Olympics if everything goes smoothly except that the host Olympians' performances are not good enough?

The scenario would not be the "best ever" at least in the perspective of the Chinese sports authorities.

As Beijing is trying to deliver a superb Games in 2008, the Chinese Olympic Committee (COC) is leaving no time lost to ensure the country's sports would display fantastic performances as what an Olympic host is expected to.

He Huixian, a COC vice president, said that since Beijing was chosen to host the Games last July, they have started a great campaign to form a highly competitive team for the top sporting event.

"We will try to compete in all Olympic events and strive for the best possible results (at the Beijing Olympics)," He said.

China, which ended its gold drought at the 1984 summer Olympics, reached a new high in the Sydney Olympics in 2000, where the country finished third behind the United States and Russia on the medals tally, with an unprecedented haul of 28 golds and 59 medals.

But COC did not feel overjoyed by the results, as they thought their performances were not convincing enough to rank among the world's sporting powers.

China, the most populous country in the world, participated in 24 sports and 167 disciplines, while there were a total of 28 sports and 300 disciplines at Sydney.

Of those countries who ranked among top six on the final medal tally, China had the fewest participating athletes and competed inthe fewest sports.

China's gold medals came from no more than 9 sports, most of which were technical sports that China had dominated for long.

China won 17 of the 24 golds on offer at the four events including diving, table tennis, badminton and women's weightlifting.

"So there has been much less room for us to win more golds fromsuch sports, which means we must try to compete in all the Olympic sports to gain new ground," He said.

China, therefore, will expand the size of national teams, planning an increase of 700 first-team athletes with 1,200 more for second-string teams.

"So far there are 13,000 registered professional athletes in our country, but those who are chosen for the national teams at present number a little over 1,300, and not each of the 28 Olympic sports had its national team," He said.

In addition, China will put a lot more resources into such big sports as athletics, swimming and aquatic events, where there are as many as 119 golds on offer, accounting for 40 percent of the total.

"But China won only one gold from these three sports. We need to gain more ground in them," He said.

China also aims to make headway in football, basketball and volleyball. "Such sports have great following, but our best resultat Sydney is the fourth placing in (women's volleyball)," said He.

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