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Summary Chinese gymnasts training for the London Olympics hope to win medals at the event.
Chinese national gymnasts are gearing up to repeat their home medal haul at the London Games with hard training, while the country continues to invest substantially to prepare young athletes to maintain its strong advantage in the sport.Chinas mens and womens Olympic teams have undergone strict practice sessions at the training hall in the General Administration of Sport in Beijing.Mens team captain and Beijing Olympic champion Chen Yibing said everyone was working hard towards a place in the final selection for London.China pocketed nine gold medals four years ago: mens and womens team titles; mens all-round, floor exercise, horizontal bar, parallel bars, pommel horse and rings; plus womens uneven bars.Lu Shanzhen, head coach of the womens team, said his primary job now was to minimise the possibility of athletes getting injured before the London Games.Gymnastics in China is a nationwide industry supported by a well-established system where young, promising gymnasts are picked up by teams and training schools from as young as four years old.At the state-run Shichahai sports school in central Beijing, the government trains young prospects in a rigorous program with regular, must-hit targets.Many children drop out and the system arouses some concerns, but Li Xiaopeng, Chinas most decorated gymnast with four Olympic gold medals and 12 world titles, said he had benefitted greatly from the programme.The devotion to gymnastics is ingrained in the country, where many people see sporting success on the international stage as a national profile raiser.
