Jackson, Taylor, Belinda Snell, Suzy Batkovic and Lausa Summerton are the six players in the Australian squad that have played in an Olympics before, while 28-year-old Rohanee Cox, a powerful 1.82m forward, will compete in her first major tournament with the Opals.

"The team is even better than the one we took to the World Championship," said Australian head coach Jan Stirling. "Since winning gold in Brazil, the players have been steadily improving and with the addition of Cox we are going to be really strong."

The US team is prepared to put all their eggs in one basket after it seriously selected out the 12-member team to go mining for gold medal in Beijing.

The team features seven Olympians, including three-time Olympic gold medalist Lisa Leslie (Los Angeles Sparks) and two-time Olympic gold medalist Katie Smith (Detroit Shock), as well as 1.93m Candace Parker, No. 1 pick overall of 2008 WNBA draft by the Los Angeles Sparks and the first female dunker in NCAA basketball when she played for the University of Tennessee, and 1. 98m center Sylvia Fowles, No. 2 draft in 2008 by the Chicago Sky.

"I'm just thrilled to have these players. It's such a great mixture of Olympic gold medalists with some really tremendous young talent," Donovan said.

The US women will play in Group B against China, Spain, the Czech Republic, Mali and New Zealand, while Group A features Australia, Russia, Brazil, Belarus, Latvia and South Korea.

The hosts China have their eyes set on a medal but their path to the target will be anything but easy.

Apparently beneath the United States, Australia and Russia, China, Spain, the Czech, Brazil, Belarus and Latvia are the same level. And they can beat or lose to each other.

Both Belarus and Latvia reach the Olympics for the first time.

(Xinhua News Agency July 20, 2008)