China announced its Olympic delegation at a grand ceremony in Beijing on Tuesday. It’s the second largest delegation in the history of China’s participation in the games and the biggest ever for an overseas Olympics.

The team includes 621 members, 396 of them athletes who will compete in 23 sports. 29 Olympic gold medalists from the Beijing Games, including badminton superstar Lin Dan, are included in the London team. Other eminent names include hurdling megastar and 2004 Olympic champion Liu Xiang, 1500 swimming world record holder Sun Yang, and former French Open champion Li Na, all of whom are keen to win gold in London. China didn’t qualify for football, but their men’s basketball team will be led by former NBA player Yi Jianlian.

From summer Olympics China has won 163 gold medals since 1984 in LA. Of all the golds, the diving squad is China’s dream team claiming world dominance with 27 golds . Chinese gymasts have won 24 golds from the seven Olympics contested. Weightlifting is as strong as gymnastics, also with 24 golds. Table tennis and shooting round out China’s top 5 gold medal sports.

China’s dominance in badminton in recent games has bagged 11 golds, the judo team has won 8. Swimming is a rising gold medal sport for China with a tally of 7 so far. Amongst all the gold medals, Liu Xiang’s triumph in the 110m hurldes in Athens is probably deemed as the most significant for the country as he became the first Asian male to win an Olympic track gold.

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