Athletes from China's synchronised swimming Olympic team practice a routine in their training base in Sao Paulo's famous Esporte Clube Pinheiros on July 30. Photo: Xinhua

Athletes from China's Olympic delegation have been making themselves at home at their training base in Sao Paulo's famous Esporte Clube Pinheiros, where they have been making the final preparations from their events in the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games.

According to Chinese Olympic officials, a total of 17 teams from China will use the club from July 22 to August 15 to train, acclimatize and recover from jet lag. The Olympic Games will last until August 21.

People's Daily journalists visited the training base ahead of the start of the games to report on how Chinese athletes are preparing for the biggest competition in the world.

Fresh faces



Esporte Clube Pinheiros was chosen as the training base for Chinese athletes because the well-equipped club has a good environment which will allow the sportspeople to train effectively and stay safe, said Sun Yuanfu, Deputy Chef de Mission of the Pre-Games Training Camp of the Chinese delegation.

Established in 1899, Esporte Club Pinheiros covers an area of 170,000 square meters and houses facilities for 15 sports including table tennis, artistic gymnastics, swimming, badminton and football.

China will send a total of 416 athletes, including 35 Olympic champions, to the Rio games. This is the largest Olympic delegation China has ever sent overseas, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

After finishing their preparation in Sao Paulo, the delegation will travel 430 kilometers northeast to Rio, where they will stay in the Olympic Village during the competition.

Sun said on July 30 that three teams - table tennis, gymnastics and football - had already finished their pre-games training and moved to the Olympic Village. At that time about 300 athletes from 10 teams including swimming, badminton, boxing, and volleyball were still training in the club.

Two fencers were sparring when People's Daily reporters went to check out the fencing hall of the Esporte Clube Pinheiros on July 30.

The fencing team arrived in Sao Paulo on July 24. Only four of the 13 athletes have participated in major competitions before, Wang Jian, leader of the team said.

Eleven of the 15 athletes competing as part of the Chinese badminton team have previous Olympic experience and Lin Dan, who has competed in four Olympic Games, is expected to win the gold medal in the men's singles this year. Lin is likely to compete against longtime rival Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia in the semi-final.

In the Chinese boxing team, a total of 11 athletes qualified for the Rio Olympic Games and they arrived in Sao Paulo on July 28.

"The main training has been finished in Beijing. So here our main task is to acclimatize and recover from jet lag," said Zhou Tao, the leader of the team.

But most team members are young and lack experience in major competitions, Zhou said, who said the games will be "hard" for his team.

Defeating diarrhea



The Sao Paulo club tightened up its management to ensure the Chinese athletes' training is not disturbed. People's Daily reporters were able to enter into the club after going through only one procedure in April, but they had to go through four registrations and security checks on July 30.

"Security posts have been added around the club. There are buses to shuttle athletes between the training base and their hotel. Meanwhile, athletes are only allowed to leave the club when three or more of them leave together," an employee with the General Administration of Sport of China said. So far, no breaches of security have occurred in the training base.

China deployed a liaison police officer to Rio two months ahead of the games to ensure the safety of Chinese athletes, journalists and tourists. China issued a safety warning to its people visiting Rio during the Olympics after a spate of thefts and robberies, the China News Service reported.

Food is another important factor. The ingredients for the athletes' meals are provided by the Rio Olympics Committee, but the food is cooked by Chinese chefs brought by the Chinese delegation. To avoid any performance-ruining bouts of food poisoning, Chinese athletes are only allowed to eat food cooked by these chefs.

The spectacular ceremony for the Rio Olympics was held in the famed Maracana soccer stadium on Friday evening.

China topped the 2008 Beijing Olympics with 51 gold medals and took 38 golds in London in 2012, just behind the US.

People's Daily-Global Times
Newspaper headline: Ready for Rio