CHINA is sending 416 athletes in total to the Rio de Janeiro Games, including 35 former Olympic champions.

    China’s team includes 160 men and 256 women, who will compete in 210 events across 26 sports.

    Cai Zhenhua, deputy director of the General Administration of Sport, was quoted by State media as saying yesterday that China’s entire delegation — including coaches and other staff — will be its largest ever at 711. Among them will be 29 coaches hired from overseas.

    China’s youngest competitor is 14-year-old swimmer Ai Yanhan. Beijing 2008 Olympics shooting champion Chen Ying, 39, is the oldest and will be appearing at her fourth Olympics.

    China won the second-largest number of medals at the 2012 London Olympics after the United States, including 38 golds.

    China is expecting a haul of gold medals from traditionally strong sports such as table tennis, badminton, gymnastics, weightlifting, shooting and diving.

    However, swimming and athletics are attracting just as much attention as China is on the rise in these two sports.

    Olympic and world freestyle champion Sun Yang, who looks to defend his 1,500m title in Rio, stands out as one of the most high-profile athletes in the Chinese legion while sharing his limelight is new sensation Ning Zetao who became the first Asian man ever to win the 100m freestyle at the world championships in Kazan last year.

    “I feel I am in good shape now,” said Ning, 23. “I am honored to represent China.”

    China is also hoping to make some impression in athletics following the success at last year’s world championships at the “Bird’s Nest” national stadium in Beijing.

    “We have high expectations for these Games, especially after the Beijing athletics world championships. The results at the worlds give us confidence,” said high jumper Wang Yu who is a graduate school student at China’s elite Tsinghua University.

    (SD-Xinhua)