The Czech Olympic Committee (COV) counts with the Czech team to the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing in August to have 230 members, including the accompaniment, and will cost about 40 million crowns (1 U.S. dollars equals 15.118 crowns), Jiri Zednicek, COV deputy chairman for finance said on Sunday.

Minimally 120 Czechs will compete at the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing in August, and others can still qualify for the competitions, the Czech news agency CTK said.

The Czech Republic was represented by 141 athletes at the pervious games in Athens.

The nomination plenary session of the Czech Olympic Committee will take place on July 16, but athletes can reach Olympic limits until July 23.

The athletes will constitute the strongest group with minimally 26 people, including gold medal defending decathlete Roman Sebrle and a hot medal contender, female javelin thrower Barbora Spotakova.

The second strongest group are shooters with 13 representatives, including Athens medallists Katerina Emmons and Lenka Maruskova.

Medals from Athens will also be defended in other sports, for instance, double water slalom Olympic gold medallist Stepanka Hilgertova.

The ten tennis representatives will include Tomas Berdych, Radek Stepanek and Nicole Vaidisova.

Czechs will also be represented in track and road cycling, triathlon, modern pentathlon, badminton, mountain biking, BMX, judo, swimming, yachting, gymnastics, table tennis, wrestling, equstrian, weightlifting, trampolining. The beach volleyball team still has a theoretical chance of advancing to the games.

Zednicek said that the state will provide 26 million crowns, the rest will be covered by the COV.

The biggest item is transport to Beijing that will cost about nine million crowns.

The operation of the Czech House is put at five million crowns that will be covered exclusively by means from COV partners, Zednicek said.

The awards for medallists have been unchanged for several Olympic Games. The gold medallist gets one million crowns, the silver medallist 500,000 crowns and third position carries 300,000 crowns, he said.

The COV spends about 250 million crowns on athletes' preparation during the four-year Olympic cycle that are divided approximately in the 2-1 proportion for the benefit of the summer Olympics, according to Zednicek.

(Xinhua News Agency July 7, 2008)