Ready for Rio

Chinese athletes aim for more glory at the Olympics By Yin Pumin

Ready for Rio

Chinese athletes aim for more glory at the Olympics By Yin Pumin

Veteran diver Lin Yue competes in the men’s 10-meter platform event in China’s Olympics qualifiers in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, on May 10

With the Rio 2016 Olympics less than a month away, Chinese athletes are ready to take on competitors. Wang Lusheng, Director of the Swimming Administrative Center of the General Administration of Sport of China (SGAS), said on June 25 that the Chinese national swimming team is in good shape and will do its best. Ace swimmer Sun Yang’s participation in the men’s 200-meter, 400-meter and 1,500-meter freestyle events in Rio is now confirmed.

At the London Olympics four years ago, the Chinese swimming team bagged five gold, two silver and three bronze medals.

According to Liu Aijie, Deputy Director of SGAS’s Competitive Sports Department, about 400 Chinese athletes will compete in Rio. The focus will be on sports like table tennis, diving, gymnastics and shooting, where the Chinese have shown themselves strong traditionally.

However, Liu admitted that there may be tough challengers in some of these sports from the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan, because these countries have invested heavily in their Olympics preparations.

“The only way to counter such challenges is to be fully prepared ourselves,” Liu said.

In 2012, the 396-strong Chinese team won second place in the overall medal tally with 88 medals including 38 golds. The United States topped the medal tally that year.

Advantageous sports

Six sports—shooting, diving, weightlifting, gymnastics, badminton and table tennis—are considered to be dominated by the Chinese.

Recently, swimming and volleyball have also been added to the list of China’s advantageous games.

Shooting has generally been the first sport to produce gold for the Chinese team.

At the London Olympics, Yi Siling won the first gold for China in the women’s 10-meter air rifle event. She is being regarded as the potential first gold harvester in Rio too.

The Chinese shooting team of 17 has six Olympic gold medalists and nine debutants.

“New shooters like Yang Haoran and Zhang Mengxue are expected to shine in Rio,” Wang Yifu, head coach of the Chinese shooting team, told Xinhua News Agency.

The Chinese diving team’s prospects are bright too. Olympic and world champions Wu Minxia and Chen Ruolin are heading the Rio team.

Wu will compete in the women’s 3-meter springboard synchro event with World Cup winner Shi Tingmao. Chen will pair up with Liu Huixia in the 10-meter platform synchro.

Olympic runner-up He Zi and Shi will take part in the women’s 3-meter springboard, whileWorld Championships silver medalist Ren Xi and Si Yajie will compete in the 10-meter platform.

In the men’s events, world champion Qiu Bo and Olympic debutant Chen Aisen will aim for the 10-meter platform gold, which evaded China in the two previous Olympics. Chen will also take part in the synchro event with veteran Lin Yue.

World champion He Chao will make his Olympic debut in the 3-meter springboard event with Cao Yuan, who will compete in the synchro springboard with veteran Qin Kai.

Despite the high-profile divers, Zhou Jihong, manager of the Chinese diving team, is keeping her fingers crossed.

“I am worried about all eight events, especially the men’s,” Zhou told Xinhua. “In the men’s events, you don’t know who will win till the last dive. Our rivals are highly skilled, very experienced and at the same time young. We have no advantage in the men’s events.”

One of the most exciting things this year is the rise of the women’s volleyball team.

In nine matches at the 2016 FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix, Chinese women claimed eight wins. The highlight was the match on June 19 when they defeated their major rival Brazil, ending the embarrassing spell of 18 consecutive defeats in the hands of the Brazilians in the past seven years.

“The victory is an inspiration to our players. It will boost our morale when facing tough rivals,” Lang Ping, head coach of the Chinese women’s volleyball team, said at a press conference.

Since she assumed office in 2013, Lang has breathed new strength into the team. Some new players, like Zhu Ting, Yuan Xinyue and Zhang Changning, are beginning to stand out. The 22-year-old Zhu has grown into an ace spiker.

Chinese players block a Serbian spiker’s attack in a match between the two countries at the FIVB Women’s Volleyball World Grand Prix 2016 in Macao on June 18

Other contenders

Synchronized swimming and cycling also have the potential to win gold for China.

According to Liu Yan, manager of the Chinese synchronized swimming team, the focus is on the doubles and team events in Rio. In 2012, Chinese swimmers bagged a bronze medal in the doubles and a silver in the team event.

Although only two swimmers in the team, Huang Xuechen and Sun Wenyan, attended the London Olympics, Liu has confidence in his young swimmers.

“We won the gold in the team event at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games and six silvers and a bronze at the 2015 FINA World Championships in Kazan, Russia, with these young swimmers,”he remarked.

But he is aware that the sport is still dominated by Russia, Ukraine, Japan and Italy while China is in the second rung. “We will grasp every opportunity to challenge those traditional powers and achieve a good result,” he added.

In cycling, Jiang Guofeng, manager of the cycling team, said that China has the strength to win gold. Their strongest event is the women’s sprint. The team has two powerful cyclists, Zhong Tianshi and Gong Jinjie. At the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in London in March, Zhong won the gold in the women’s sprint, becoming the first Chinese world champion in the event.

“The Chinese team will face strong competition from Germany, Australia and Russia, but we have confidence,” Jiang said.

Another sport that could bring gold home is judo. Heavyweight judoka Yu Song is China’s top medal hopeful in Rio. The 29-year-old, a gold medal winner at the 2015 Judo World Championships, is now the world No.1 in the over 78-kg category for women.

Besides, Ma Yingnan in the women’s 52-kg category and Yang Junxia in the women’s 63-kg category are also potential medal winners. Ma Xiaoxiang, heavyweight coach of the Chinese team, told People’s Daily that Chinese judokas have the power to win medals in Rio. The confidence comes from the assiduous preparation.

According to Ma, after the 2012 Olympics, the team upped their investment in the development of new training methods and invited more than 20 professional trainers and other support personnel to groom its athletes.

“We arranged more than 10 trainers for Yu,”Ma said.

Yu’s biggest rival is Cuba’s Idalys Ortiz, the defending Olympic champion.

“Ortiz ranks No.2 in the world and will be my main rival. Young judoka Maria Suelen Altheman from Brazil is also a tough competitor,” Yu told the daily. “But my only goal is to win the gold.”