BEIJING -- Chinese athletes have got two tickets for the women's mountain bike in the Beijing Olympic Games, which is a potential gold-wining discipline for China's Olympic delegation.
Among them, Ren Chengyuan, 21, a key member of the national team from Jiangsu, a southern province of China, is undoubtedly undertaking the task of wining the gold because she is the first and only Chinse rider who has so far won world titles of mountain biking.
In the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, China was only positioned 17th in the women's mountain bike. However, in recent years the Chinese mountain biking teams, especially the woman's one, have developed quickly.
Ren and her teammates have caught people's eyes as she has become a familiar face on both the international and domestic podiums since 2007 after she was positioned in the ranking in the 2005 World Cup.
In April 2007, Ren won her first gold medal in the World Cup sponsored by the International Cycling Union (UCI) in Belgium, also the first world title and the best record of China's mountain biking that has developed for more than a decade.
In April 2008, Ren defended her World Cup title in Belgium, and managed for a bronze despite being injured in the subsequent race in German.
Sport experts believed Ren is very stable and has potentials to win the Olympic gold. If she would make good use of the hosts' advantage, wining the gold will not be a remote dream, they added.
In 2000, the 14-year old entered the local mountain biking team in Xuzhou, a northern city in Jiangsu, and in 2004 she was chosen to join the province team, then in 2005 she became a member of national team. The last seven years has seen Ren from a layman to a world champion.
Behind the glittering medals and good records are her hardworking and great efforts.
Zhou Guangke, Ren's coach in the national team, said it was he who chose Ren from the province team then because he appreciated Ren's spirits of enduring hardship and never giving in to any difficulty reflected in the training and racing.
Since mountain biking is a sport dominated by western athletes, Zhou added, Ren's main opponents in Beijing Olympic Games are those Western riders, including Russia's Irina Kalentieva, Germany's veteran Sabine Spitz and several others from Norway and Canada.
"Although the western athletes have prominent advantages in technique, they are older than our athletes in general," said the national coach, "I believe the key of our athletes to win the Olympic gold is good combination of physical strength and techniques."
Just like Liu Xiang, the first Chinese to win the Olympic gold medal in the western athletes-dominated men's track and field event, said the coach, "my athletes are eager to win a gold medal in the Beijing Olympic Games in order to popularize the sport. We are sure that the Games is a good opportunity to make a historical breakthrough for China's mountain biking."
