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BEIJING: China can emerge from the Beijing Olympics as the dominant
world sporting power, although it is unlikely to make waves in
blue-ribbon events such as athletics and swimming.
Rather, its hopes of upstaging the United States
and topping the medals table lie in scooping golds from sports where
it is traditionally strong—table tennis, badminton, gymnastics and
diving.
It will also be aiming to add to the tally in
lower profile disciplines such as canoeing, boxing, beach volleyball
and synchronized swimming.
At Athens four years ago, China finished with 32
gold, 17 silver and 14 bronze medals to end second behind America.
In the drive to beat that mark and satisfy
nationalist pride, the host nation is expected to field almost 600
athletes in August—up from the 407 it sent to Greece.
Despite the boost in competitors, Deputy Sports
Minister Cui Dalin has been keen to play down expectations of a
medals avalanche.
“This is the first Olympics where our athletes
are competing at home and they face a whole new competition
environment and a whole series of difficulties never encountered
before,” he told state media this month.
“The gap between the Chinese competitors’
performances in swimming and athletics and those for foreign
competitors is vast,” he said.
Cui is right about athletics and swimming. Only
defending 110-meter hurdles champion Liu Xiang and London marathon
winner Zhou Chunxiu have a realistic chance of seeing the Chinese
flag hoisted in honor of a gold medal.
Apart from them, Zhang Wenxiu is seen an outside
chance in the women’s hammer throw after taking bronze at the
world athletics championships in Japan last year.
For hurdler Liu, the first Chinese man to secure
an Olympic athletics gold when he won in Athens, the pressure
couldn’t be greater.
Not only is he expected to win, but his hundreds
of millions of fans will be looking for him to break his own world
record.
China is the dominant table tennis nation and
with the likes of men’s world numbers one and two, Wang Hao and Ma
Lin, in action, and top-ranked Zhang Yining and Guo Yue on the
women’s side, a medal frenzy is almost guaranteed.
Golden couple Lin Dan and Xie Xingfang will
carry Chinese hopes on the badminton courts, while the diving team
will aim to top their six golds from nine medals at Athens.
A sport that China could surprise in is boxing.
At the Asian Games in Doha in 2006, they shocked world heavyweights
Kazakhstan and Thailand by bagging two gold medals through Zou
Shiming (light flyweight) and Hu Qing (lightweight).
Other medal chances should come in women’s
weightlifting and shooting.
-- AFP
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