China Report - Olympic Team Unveiled; Weightlifting World Champion Left Off

(ATR) China will send 396 athletes to London to participate in the 2012 Olympics, including29 gold medalists from Beijing 2008.

Chinese Olympic Committee president Liu Peng made the announcement Tuesday, adding that China will participate in 23 of 26 sports on offer in London, the exceptions being football, handball and equestrian .

Peng also encouraged athletes and coaches to achieve their best in London but did not release a medals target for the Games.

Most experts predict China will not repeat the success seen in Beijing after losing home advantage this time around.

Xinhua news agency estimates that China will claim 37 gold medals in London, and USA TODAY pegs the haul at 27 gold medals, nearly halving the number from four years ago.

China sent 639 athletes to the 2008 Olympics and claimed 100 total medals, topping Team USA (51 to 36) in gold medals won for the first time.

Weightlifting World Champion Eliminated

The absence of Tian Yuan, last year's weightlifting world champion and current world record holder in the women's 48 kg category, is the biggest surprise on the list of 2012 Olympians released Tuesday by the COC.

The Chinese weightlifting team also announced its squad Tuesday, including sole Beijing Olympic gold medalist Lu Yong. Liu Chunhong, Long Qingquan and the other five Olympic gold medalists all failed to defend their titles.

The gold medal favorite, Tian Yuan, is surprisingly replaced by the veteran Wang Mingjuan. Unknown Zhou Jun was also a surprise addition to the team.

"I'm very upset about the result," Tian said on her Tencent Weibo account after learning of her fate.

"I am very surprised with the result, and I don't understand why I am not on the list," she added, denying she was knocked out by any doping issues.

"I have won the Olympic trials while setting national records and surpassing world records. I have participated in the Youth Olympic Games, 2010 and 2011 World Championships and Asian Championships and have not failed at any doping tests."

The 19-year-old weightlifter, a rising star on China’s weightlifting team, won the world title last year in Paris in the 48kg category by totaling 207kg. She jerked 126kg to finish with a total of 221kg, bettering both the world records in jerk by 5kg and the total by 4kg at this year's Olympic trials.

As one of six gold medal resources, the Chinese weightlifting team topped the medals table on home soil four years ago, claiming eight of the 15 golds on offer and one silver in an awesome display of lifting across the board.

Increase in Information Transparency

This time around, the Chinese Olympic team increased its information transparency with most sports releasing their squads one month before Tuesday’s official announcement from the COC.

Since the Olympic list has a strong connection with the benefits given to each province's sports governing bodies, most teams - especially Chinese-dominated sports such as diving, weightlifting, gymnastics and table tennis - refused to release their teams to the media four years ago, a controversial issue before the Beijing Games.

However, most of these sports released their squads earlier this Olympic period. China’s shooting team announced its squad directly after trials in March. Wang Yifu, the head coach of the Chinese shooting team, insisted that the team would respect the election results.

Wang also cleared up rumors that two-time Olympic gold medalist Du Li will replace rookie Yu Dan in the first shooting event - women's 10m air rifle, which also seemed to be the first potential gold medal for the Chinese Olympic team in London.

"We need to respect the result of the election, so we won't change anything for the first event," said Wang.

"Each shooter has their first Olympic Games, and we need to give them those opportunities. We expect to compete well at the Games, and it is not only dependent on those two shooters but also the whole team," Wang added.

World champion Yi Siling will also compete at this event.

Yu unexpectedly upset the more experienced Du at the shooting trials in March to book her berth for London. However, the 25-year-old shooter performed poorly at the following two World Cup events, resulting in the rumor.

The Chinese shooting team has traditionally taken the responsibility for winning the first gold medal for China, and three times has won the very first gold of the Games, including the 1984, 2000 and 2004 Olympics.

Reported in Beijing by Tencent's Norman Li.

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