里约奥运会，中国军团阵容如何？

LK: China is sending a large delegation of about 400 athletes this year, the biggest in its history. Lingling, how do you comment on the overall line-up of this year’s China delegation? What highlights can we expect? Liu Lingling: I think China will still do very well in its traditional events. For example, badminton and also table tennis, but in some traditional events – for example, gymnastics – perhaps China won’t be as good as before. LK: Why is that? Liu Lingling: I think it’s because they have a lot of talented [competitors]. For example, they are in the same group as Russia. They also have Japan. I think Japan now is getting better and better in gymnastics. LK: Mark, what do you think? Mark Dreyer: China has 35 Olympic champions in its delegation. I mean, that’ll be a pretty strong team however you look at it, and these are not people who are in their late 30’s, these are people who are going to be competing to retain their titles, so again, it’s going to be very, very strong. Almost everyone, I think, is predicting that China will finish second to the US, so there’s going to be a ton of medals, and hopefully, from the Chinese perspective, a lot of gold ones. Liu Peng, who’s the head of the delegation of the Chinese Olympic committee, has tried to back away a little bit from China’s previous gold obsession. LK: Don’t expect too much from us! Mark Dreyer: Yeah. I mean, that’s smart, because he’s trying to take the pressure off some of the athletes, but of course, everyone’s going to looking for China. He’s saying, talking about these traditional sports – you know, table tennis, badminton, gymnastics – that China is not going to have it its own way. But, you know, on the flip side, they’re going to still be winning a ton of medals. I’m more interested, actually, in looking at some of the other sports, the newer sports, such as fencing, where China is beginning to make some strides. We’ve got Lei Sheng, the flagbearer, who was the champion first time around for China in London, and then Xu Anqi on the ladies’ side, she’s a very good bet for a gold medal in her fencing discipline. This is a new sport that China is looking to try to make as dominant as some of the old ones.