Destination London

By ZHANG RULIANG

ACROSS the globe, sportspeople of almost every nationality are busy prepar- ing for one of the biggest international sporting events of the world, this year to be held in London from July 27 to August 12. Some 380 athletes from the Chinese mainland have qualified to represent their country at the 30th Summer Olympic Games.

Cai Zhenhua, deputy director of the General Administration of Sport of China, played down the countrys prospects in the British capital. “The target for 2012 is just to remain in the lead group on the gold medal table. A study on the past five Games show that host countries win record high medals at home, but their total medals drop at the next Olympics,” Cai said.

However, modest expectations do not mean that the countrys efforts have been dampened. Besides maintaining its dominance in table tennis, badminton, gymnastics, shooting, weightlifting and diving, the Chinese delegation wishes to achieve breakthrough in other three events, namely mens swimming, womens boxing and womens water polo. To achieve this, the delegation has chosen Leeds as the location for a training center where athletes can adapt to the environment in advance. A London base will also be set up to provide the team with extra medical and technical support during the games.

Mens Swimming

In the last four years, the overall strength of Chinas mens swimming has improved, with Sun Yang as its strongest swimmer. This summer, he will be competing in 400-meter, 200-meter, and 1,500-meter freestyle events. As the star of Chinas swimming team, his goal is to seize Chinas first Olympic gold in mens swimming event.

Chinas first-ever Olympic medal in mens swimming came just four years ago, when Zhang Lin stole second place in the mens 400-meter freestyle event at the Beijing Olympics. The following year, he won a historic gold in the 800-meter freestyle at the World Championships in Rome. Zhang thus became the first male Chinese swimmer to break a world freestyle record in 49 years, and the first male Asian swimmer to win gold in a long-distance freestyle event at the Olympic Games or the world championships in 73 years. His remarkable performance might even prove more significant than fellow countryman Liu Xiangs breakthrough intrack and field in Athens in 2004.

Unfortunately, this year Zhang didnt meet the Olympic A standard and has slim hopes of competing at the 2012 London Olympics. Many people feel sorry for the 25-year-old, who should be at his peak, but whose performance has plummeted.

Sun Yang, however, is performing well. Last year, Sun amazed the world at the 14th FINA World Championships in Shanghai, when he won three medals in the mens 400-meter, 800-meter and 1500-meter freestyle events. The swimming star grabbed four gold medals at the National Swimming Championships, which also served as the Olympic trial for Chinese swimmers. Particularly strong in 1500-meter freestyle, Sun has a good chance of repeating or even surpassing Zhang Lins achievements at the London Olympics, as long as he maintains his usual standards.

Womens Boxing

Womens boxing will make its Olympic debut at London 2012, meaning that all 26 sports on the program will have both female and male competitors. China has high hopes of winning gold at the new event following its good performance in the 2008 Womens World Boxing Championships in Chinas Ningbo City, where home boxers won five gold medals in 13 weight disciplines.

Hopes are high in particular for Ren Cancan and Li Jinzi, both of whom have qualified for the London Games and dominated world championships in recent years. Victory, however, is not guaranteed.

“We have made progress in womens boxing, but other countries, like Russia and England, have improved faster,” said Chang Jianping, director of the Boxing and Taekwondo Administration Center at the General Administration of Sport of China. “For now, we need to make further efforts to achieve our targets.”

On top of that, the England Womens Boxing Team has the home court advantages, and European boxers continued to dominate the sport at this years Wom- ens World Boxing Championships where more than half of the 40 medals went to European boxers, with several other strong opponents coming from the U.S., Cuba and India.

Womens Water Polo

Coming sixth at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the Chinese Womens Water Polo Team cant be ignored. Last year, the team reached new heights when it clinched its first silver medal at the 14th FINA World Championships in Shanghai.

Led by Spanish coach Juan Jane Giralt, the team is making its final preparations for the games. Giralt, who guided the Spanish mens team to the gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, has great confidence in his squad. “The top teams are from the U.S., Canada, Italy, Russia and Greece. Five years ago, we were not strong enough to compete with them, but now we are in the same league. It is possible for us to take the Olympic gold,” said the coach.

The team has made surprising progress considering Chinas small pool of water polo players, with just a few hundred registered in the country, and that the team was set up as recently as 2004 in preparation for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Some of the teams members were originally competitive swimmers, and moved to the sport later in their athletic careers.

This team was organized jointly by the Water Sports Administration Center and Tianjin Sports Bureau, and Tianjin University of Commerce provides education and access to top coaches. As China has no professional competitions for womens water polo, the athletes have to go abroad to participate in professional games. Despite this, the players are dedicated and the team has a stable lineup, with most of its members having taken part in the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008. Furthermore, the bulk of the team is young enough to attend the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where its prospects will be even brighter.

Main Force to Win Gold Medals

China dominates in table tennis, badminton, gymnastics, shooting, weightlifting and diving, which make up 80 percent of the countrys gold medals in the previous Olympic Games and help secure Chinas position at the top of the gold medal table. With the venue in the UK, however, the Chinese team may not be able to match the 51 medals it won in 2008, even though it has remained at the top in these six sports in international competitions and has fulfilled its quota in five of them.

Shooting is the only sport for which China has not fulfilled its Olympics quota. The Chinese shooting team failed to give a satisfactory performance in the Olympics qualifying tournament and filled only 23 places out of a possible 28. Nevertheless, shooting has lost few advantages and remains part of the main force of the Chinese team being sent to London.

Track and field and swimming are the highest profile and most competitive Olympic sports, with 47 and 32 gold medals up for grabs respectively. So far, China has secured a total of 101 places in these 79 events, showing the prowess that Chinese athletes have achieved. Four years ago Chinese athletes only managed to hold onto one gold medal in swimming and failed to win a single field and track event. One of the countrys biggest hopes was Liu Xiang, who won a gold medal in the 110-meter hurdles at the Athens Olympics in 2004. But he left the track when an old injury flared up, dashing Chinese fans hopes of winning a gold in athletics at home.

That year, however, several Chinese teams collected an impressive array of medals, and even broke a few records for gold. Chinese teams including boxing, windsurfing and rowing won their first gold medals, and, inspired by their success back in Beijing, the track and field team has their hearts set on gold at the London Olympics.

Events where the Chinese track and field team are especially confident in their chances of bringing home the gold have expanded this year to include the mens 110-meter hurdles, womens discus, mens 20-km race walk and womens 20-km race walk. Nevertheless, competition is fierce and a win is far from in the bag, bearing in mind Liu Xiangs disappointing experience in 2008. Liu, however, is once again one of Chinas greatest Olympic hopes. Having recovered from his injury, he has returned to the top of his game and managed to beat his personal best and match the world record when he ran the 110-meter hurdles in 12.87 seconds in June. Liu is considered to be in better control of his own athletic condition than ever and has made his mark on the international competition circuit. People are anticipating a historic performance at the London Olympics, where he is hoped to repeat his success at Athens 2004.

The swimming team is also more confident this year, boasting some of the worlds top performers, including swimmers like Sun Yang and Jiao Liuyang, and both teams are expected to overshadow the losses they experienced at the previous Olympics and contribute to Chinas overall success.

Though much attention will be on these hopefuls, we mustnt forget potential winners in other less high profile categories, like fencing and synchronized swimming, and we send our best wishes with every athlete on their way to the London Olympic Games!