'Groundless' rumor

But on Wednesday, China Youth Daily quoted an official in charge of scheduling as saying the rumor was "groundless".

"If you look at the schedule, both events have a chance," the unnamed official said. "When we composed the schedule, we did consider which event would award the first gold medal. But we didn't designate any specific event to be the first."

China's first-ever Olympic gold medal also happened to be the first gold awarded at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, won by Xu Haifeng in the individual free pistol 60 shots. China also won the first gold of a Games 20 years later when Du Li came back on her last shot to snatch gold in the women's 10m air rifle in Athens.

But the shooting team is playing down the huge expectations of winning the first Olympic gold on home soil, and shooting officials like Gao Zhidan have flatly rejected the media's hype of the issue.

The Chinese weightlifting team thinks China will have no problem winning the first gold of the Games, regardless of the event. Ma Wenguang said it all depends on the athletes.

"Regardless of the predictions, it still depends on how the athletes perform," Ma said. "If it should be yours, then it will be."

Ma's main concern at the moment is choosing which athletes to take to Beijing. No one is sure yet which weightlifters will represent China in the final on Aug 9. Out of world record holder Yang Lian and world champions Chen Xiexia and Wang Mingjuan, only one will be listed on China's final Olympic list, which will be released today.

"Things are still not quite certain at the moment," Ma said.

"We simply have too many talented athletes to choose from. It's our sweet little problem."

(China Daily July 25, 2008)