All of the athletes will pass drug tests during the Games, asserted Yuan Weimin, Chinese Olympic Committee president who will lead the nation’s top athletes to the Games.

“Whoever is involved in drug taking will be severely punished," he promised.

In Sydney, the team will definitely win another “moral" battle - avoiding any drug-taking scandal, Yuan said.

China’s Olympians will compete in 25 of the Games’ 28 sports. National sports officials want the team to win at least 16 gold medals and the same ranking as in the 1996 Games in Atlanta, where China ranked fourth in the gold-medal count with 16 golds.

“We want to win more gold medals than four years ago," Yuan said.

He said medal-winning performances will likely come in weightlifting, gymnastics, table tennis, shooting, badminton, diving and judo.

But, he stressed, it would be “very tough" to win gold in any team event, even in women’s soccer and volleyball, where the Chinese squads, having medal hopes, face daunting competition.

Chinese athletes will compete in archery, track and field, men’s basketball, badminton, boxing, canoeing, rowing, cycling, fencing, women’s soccer, gymnastics and rhythm gymnastics, women’s field hockey, judo, wrestling, softball and tennis.

They will also compete in swimming, diving and synchronized swimming, modern pentathlon, women’s volleyball and beach volleyball, shooting, yachting and sailing, table tennis, weightlifting, taekwondo and the women’s ironman triathlon.

Yuan predicts China will face stiff competition from France and host Australia for fourth place in the gold-medal race.

(China Daily)