CHINESE athletes have arrived at Sao Paulo’s Esporte Clube Pinheiros, the training center of the Chinese Olympic delegation for the upcoming Rio Olympic Games.

    According to the Chinese delegation, a total of 16 teams from the country will use the club in Brazil’s most populous city to train ahead of the Games, scheduled to run from Aug 5-21. Considering the change in climate and jet lag from China, on-site training in Sao Paulo will be crucial for the performance of the athletes.

    About half of China’ s Olympic athletes will go to the training base. The training base in Sao Paulo will operate from July 22 to Aug. 15. Following their training, teams will travel 430 kilometers northeast to Rio, where they will stay at the Olympic Village during the competitions.

    “With the flight distance of about 17,000 km and flight time of about 22 hours, it is the farthest Olympic Games we have been to. In order to get used to the weather, environment and time differences, the Chinese Olympic Committee decided to build up the pre-Games training camp,” said Sun Yuanfu, an official of the Chinese delegation,

    “The table tennis, gymnastics and soccer teams have finished their training and entered the Olympic Village in Rio already. Ten teams of more than 300 people are still training here, including swimming, badminton, boxing, canoe sprint, fencing, volleyball, weightlifting, waterpolo, synchronized swimming and golf. After that, we will have taekwondo, wrestling and modern pentathlon arrive one after another,” Sun added.

    Located in the exclusive neighborhood of Jardim Europa, Esporte Club Pinheiros covers an area of 170,000 square meters, the equivalent of about 10 soccer pitches.

    Esporte Clube Pinheiros prepared to welcome the Chinese athletes by recruiting scores of volunteers to help accommodate the delegation.

    The club offers facilities for 15 sports: table tennis, artistic gymnastics, swimming, badminton, soccer, tennis, rugby, water polo, volleyball, fencing, boxing, synchronized swimming, modern pentathlon and taekwondo.

    China has also reserved a hotel near Pinheiros, booking most of the available rooms.

    China is not the only team preparing for the Games outside of Rio. Britain will use the Minas Tenis Clube in Belo Horizonte as a pre-Games base.

    China will send 416 athletes, including 35 previous Olympic champions, to the Rio Olympics. It is the largest Olympic delegation China has ever sent overseas.

    China had the second-highest number of podium finishers at the London Olympics, with 88, including 38 gold medals. The United States, which had 530 athletes, led the tally with 103 medals, 46 of which were gold.

    (Xinhua)