Twice Olympic champion Zhang Yining is among a total of 44 Beijing native athletes, 13 more than four years ago, to compete in the upcoming Olympic Games.

Zhang, the world top-ranked table tennis player, won the women's singles and doubles gold medals in the Athens Olympics.

Zhang Yining salutes the audience after claiming the gold medal in Athens Games

She will be more comfortable in fighting for another two gold medals in the Peking University Gymnasium only 10 kilometers away from where she was born and grew up.

The Beijing athletes will compete in 35 events from 17 sports in the Olympic Games and they are expected to win medals in table tennis, gymnastics, diving and shooting.

Among the 44 athletes, there are 24 men and 20 women, with 32-year-old baseball player Sun Wei the oldest and 16-year-old gymnast He Kexin the youngest. Eleven of them competed in the 2004 Athens Olympics and synchronized swimmer Zhang Xiaohuan is the only one who has competed in three consecutive Olympics.

Last Friday China announced its biggest-ever Olympic delegation of 1,099 members, including 639 athletes.

There are also 22 coaches and three medical staff members from Beijing in the Chinese delegation.

(Xinhua News Agency July 30, 2008)