On Saturday, American skeet shooter Vincent Hancock will make his Olympic debut.
He is just 19 years old, but his career highlights have already tell everything: world record holder of the event with a staggering 150 hits, world champion of 2005, and gold medalist in at least four World Cups in recent years.
"I love winning. It is good feeling to me," he was confident.
Talking about the Olympics, he said, "It was not different from other events, just bigger."
Major rival on his road to victory would be Georgios Achilleos from Cyprus, who is currently ranked world's No. 1 in the event. The year 2007 saw a peak of this 28-year-old shooter's performance, when he bagged gold medals in skeet at European championships, World Championships, the Santo Domingo fort of World Cup and World Cup Final.
Earlier this year Achilleos was crowned at the World Cup in Belgrade. It is not unlikely for him to continue his glory.
Italian veteran shooter Andrea Benelli will be defending his title. With a bronze from Atlanta Olympic, the 40-year-old was ranked fifth currently.
And Dubai crowned prince Saeed Al-Maktoum eyes his first Olympic medal. His cousin Ahmed Al-Maktoum shot down the first Olympic gold for the United Arab Emirates in Athens. This pressed him to work harder.
"Everyone comes here for the medals...I have confidence in my capability," he said.
At the men's 25-meter rapid fire pistol event, Germany's "shooting machine" Ralf Schumann would seek to continue his legend.
The marksman, 46, holds the biggest number of Olympic medals in this event with three gold and one silver.
Although world record of the event currently belongs to his teammate Reitz Christian, Schumann had bettered it again and again.
"If you can repeat the victory, that is an absolute feeling," he had said before the Athens Games.
Of course the top-ranking Christian is also a strong competitior for medals in the event.
Not everyone could improve Schumann's record.
It's a pity that Russian marksman Sergai Alifirenko, gold medalist in men's 25-meter rapid fire pistol event at the Sydney Olympics, will be absent due to his eye illness.
He will be replaced by up-and-rising athlete Leonid Ekimov, who is now ranked No. 1 in the first stage of the qualification, two points ahead of Christian, three points before Chinese Zhang Penghui, Schumann and his compatriot Alexei Klimov.
(Xinhua News Agency August 15, 2008)