With 17 days to go for the Olympic Games, the Chinese swimmers are struggling in training sessions, hoping for a final boost-up of their forms and a possible podium finish despite the prevailing pessimism that chances of medal, if not gold, are quite slim for them.
"There is less than a month ahead of the event and I will seize every minute to raise my form. I hope I would be among the ones who stand on the podium," said Chinese top butterflyer Wu Peng between training sessions in China's southeast plateau province Yunnan.
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Wu Peng
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The 21-year-old swimmer has become the flag-bearer of the Chinese swimming squad and is one of the team's best hopes to take home an Olympic medal at the Beijing Games.
However, China's swimming head coach has publicly voiced his low tone about their Olympic chances after a national Olympic trials competition this March, saying the country's once-powerful team lags far behind countries such as Australia and the United States.
"We have the confidence to do our best, but we really have no specific event that will be able to produce a gold medal at the Beijing Games," head coach Zhang Yadong said.
"So far there is no world record holder from China. It means we lag far behind the world," Zhang said.
Zhang's remarks came after his swimmers' worst performance in 15 years at last year's world championships in Melbourne, where they won just one silver and one bronze medal.
Since its prime at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, when China won four golds, the squad has managed just two golds in the following three Games -- one in 1996 and one in 2004.
On the men side, although the gold of 200 meters butterfly seems to be reserved for American Michael Phelps, the world record holder, Wu, who achieved his personal best of 1:54.82 at the trials, believe he has a shot at the minor medals.
Wu now ranks fifth in the world. In the Athens Games, he placed the sixth in the event's final, won by Phelps.
"There is still like a gulf between me and Phelps, but I will do my best to bridge the gap," Wu said.
Another Chinese male swimmer Zhang Lin, best in 400 meters freestyle and also good in 200 and 1500 free, has been on a fast lane of improvement since a three-month training in Australia last year.
The 21-year-old is now the world's third fastest man in the 400 free and the fourth fastest in the 1500 freestyle. Although the two long-distance races are highly likely to continue to be dominated by Australia's long distance king Grant Hackett in Beijing, Zhang remains a strong medal contender.
On the women side, veteran breaststroker and multiple medallists Qi Hui has recovered from downturn last year. In her special of 200 meters breaststroke, Qi clocked 2:25.68 at the Olympics trials and could place sixth in this year's world ranking. She is also the most powerful Chinese female swimmer in 200 meters individual medley and 100 breaststroke.