Spearheaded by Torino Olympic silver medallist Li Ni'na, Chinese aerials skiers are striving for a clean sweep of all three aerials gold medals at the Harbin Winter Universiade.
"Despite the absence of Olympic champion Han Xiaopeng, we have gathered all other top Chinese players including Li Ni'na. I think our athletes are competitive in every aerials event," said Chinese team leader Yan Xiaojuan.
The 26-year-old Han, who snatched China's first ever Olympic gold medal in snow sports in the men's aerials at the Torino Winter Games, is missing from the Chinese squad due to injury.
Winter Universiade freestyle competitions will kick off on Friday with more than 60 skiers from around the world vying for five titles in men's, women's, team aerials as well as men's and women's ski cross.
"Thanks to the hard work in recent years, we have three to four good skiers in both men's and women's categories, which gave us better chance for the medals."
A total of ten Chinese aerials players will take part in this Universiade among which Zhao Shanshan, Cheng Shuang, Zhang Xin, Dai Shuangfei had all landed top three finishes in previous World Cup events.
"We not only want to have good results on home soil, but also would like to use this competition as a good opportunity to prepare for next year's Vancouver Winter Olympic Games," Yan said.
Most of the skiers from the Chinese team are studying at the Shenyang Sports University, a famous sports institute of China.
"A total of 15 students from our college will take part in this Winter Universiade and I wish them all the best," said Xu Wei, a senior official from the Shenyang Sports University.
Competitions of five snow sports of the 24th Winter Universiade are going to be held in the Yabuli Ski Resort, namely Alpine skiing, freestyle skiing, nordic combined, ski jumping and cross-country.
(Xinhua News Agency February 18, 2009)