Chinese divers eye eight gold medals at BJ Olympic

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Source: CCTV.com | 07-26-2008 09:05

Known as the "dream team", the Chinese diving team has won 20 gold medals in six Olympic games since the 1990s. Now the team is eyeing eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics.

China's diving squad has been training hard since June 21st in Shandong province.

Diving queen Guo Jingjing

The public are allowed to watch them practice, so the young divers can get used to having an audience.

The women's team has the top two ranked divers in each of the four women's events. But the men's team is facing tough challenges from Canadian and Russian divers.

Diving queen Guo Jingjing is hoping to retain the Olympic 3-meter springboard title at the Beijing Olympics. Together with 23-year-old Wu Minxia, she also won gold in the 3-meter springboard synchronized competition at the Athens Olympics.

Guo Jingjing said "When you have confidence in yourself, you don't feel too much pressure. That's because you can manage the whole thing, and you feel you can also manage the pressure. It should be like this. Anyway, when you are in good shape, there is less pressure. That's why we are trying to reach peak condition during training to get ready for the Games."

Younger Chinese divers are also well prepared. Chen Ruolin and Wang Xin, both 16 years old, have never lost a women's 10-meter synchronized diving platform competition since the 2007 World Championships.

16-year-old Lin Yue and 18-year-old Huo Liang are also big medal hopes for the 10-meter synchronized diving. They have won nearly all the gold medals at national and international competitions since 2006.

Zhou Jihong, Head Coach of Chinese Diving Team said "People just see the competition results, in which we win a lot of gold medals. But behind the medals, competition is always fierce."

The diving team will move to the Beijing Olympic village in early August ahead of what is expected to be a winning performance at the Water Cube.

Editor:Xiong Qu