Chasing perfection in Paris preparations

With one year to go before the Olympic flame lights up the world again, Chinese athletes have vowed to go faster, higher and stronger to do their country proud at Paris 2024.

As anticipation builds across the world for next year's Games, which open on July 26, Chinese athletes, coaches and team officials from a wide range of sports are going all out in their preparations, spurred on by the nation's ambitious medal target in the French capital.

Leading the charge will be China's traditional super six — the decorated diving, shooting, gymnastics, table tennis, badminton and weightlifting squads — who have contributed a whopping 192 gold medals of the total 263 won at the Olympics since the country's Summer Games debut in 1984.

Fresh from its impressive 12-gold campaign at the World Aquatics Championships in Japan, China's diving team will keep chasing perfection in the buildup to Paris 2024, aiming for a clean sweep of the eight titles on offer. That is a feat the team has never managed on the Olympic stage, coming up one gold short three times — in 2008, 2016 and 2021.

That imperfection is a huge motivation for China's divers, said coach Chen Ruolin, a legend in the sport.

"The Chinese diving team is always pursuing not just success but also perfection, and at the Paris Olympics will look to go beyond our previous performances," Chen said in her speech during a mobilization meeting held at the headquarters of Chinese Olympic Committee in Beijing on Tuesday.

"As a three-time Olympian and now a coach of the team, I will go the extra mile to help the younger generation fulfill their Olympic dreams," added Chen, who retired in October 2016 at 23 after winning five platform golds across three Olympics from 2008-16.

Team China won 12 of the 13 diving events at the ongoing world championships, missing out on gold in the men's 10m platform to Australian Cassiel Rousseau in the final session on Saturday.

Rousseau's surprise victory, beating the Chinese duo of Lian Junjie and Yang Hao with six flawless rounds, snapped China's 37-title win streak in diving at the worlds which dated back to 2019, and rung an alarm bell for the "dream team".

With higher stakes and bigger pressure at the Olympics, Chinese divers should stay focused and be wary of complacency to go for the perfect eight in Paris, according to Chen.

China's table tennis team is also on a mission to maintain its golden momentum leading up to the Paris Games, with its recent five-title sweep at the ITTF World Championships in May boding well for the task in the French capital.

"We passed our mid-term exam for Paris 2024 at the Durban world championships with full marks, but we are far from 100 percent at ease given the tougher and more intense international competitions we are facing now," said Wang Hao, coach of the Chinese men's team.

"Yet, we are confident the competition within the team can force everybody to stay sharp and motivated.

"The high-quality internal competition and the role-model influence from veterans like Ma Long have helped build the winning culture that we will continue to lean on toward Paris 2024," said Wang, an 18-time world champion.

With China striving to build a world-class sporting power as a national target, the team's attempts to expand its prowess to more mainstream sports in an international context — such as athletics, swimming, team ball sports and tennis — will undergo a stern test at the Paris Games.

Chinese swimmers' flying start at the world championships in Japan, where Zhang Yufei and Qin Haiyang bagged gold medals on Monday, suggests much progress has been made in that regard in the pool.

After having to settle for silver in the women's 100m butterfly at the Tokyo Olympics, Zhang won the same event at the worlds on Monday, beating Canada's reigning Olympic champion Maggie Mac-Neil and defending world champion Torri Huske of the United States, to raise hopes of a multi-gold haul in Paris from the Jiangsu native.

Men's breaststroke specialist Qin's convincing win in the 100m final, the first world championships win for a Chinese man in the event, added to the growing sense of expectation that China can excel in the Paris pool.

In track and field, the adoption of more advanced training methods and international expertise in strength conditioning, rehabilitation and nutrition have helped Chinese athletes reach new heights, making the Paris Games an intriguing test for the country's next-gen talent.

"All the setbacks, injuries and defeats will pave the way for more breakthroughs and I will for sure spare no efforts in trying to leap further and represent my country to the best of my ability at the Olympics," said Wang Jianan, the reigning men's long jump world champion.

As the country's only world-class collective big-ball team, the Chinese women's volleyball squad delivered itself a major confidence boost by finishing runner-up in the FIVB Volleyball Nations League earlier this month.

Despite losing 3-1 to eventual champion Turkiye in the final in Texas, the never-say-die Chinese team looks to have shaken off the disappointment of its early exit at the Tokyo Games.

"The Chinese women's volleyball team always fights back from adversity and as a veteran and team captain I will make sure that we all push in the same direction and stay on the same page to compete for the best outcome at next year's Olympics," said Yuan Xinyue, a formidable member of the Olympic champion team at Rio 2016.