Members of the Chinese delegation to the Paris Olympics attend a meeting to establish the delegation in Beijing on Saturday. — Photo Xinhua/China Daily

BEIJING – The Chinese Olympic Committee has announced that it will send 405 athletes, including 42 Olympic champions, at an average age of 25 to the Paris Olympic Games, which will open on July 26.

The delegation is made up of 136 men and 269 women athletes, with 37-year-old women’s race walker Liu Hong the oldest competitor and 11-year-old women’s skateboarder Zheng Haohao the youngest.

Even with 10 events reduced from the official program at Tokyo 2020, Paris 2024 will mark the biggest representation of Team China at an overseas edition of the Games with its athletes having qualified in 236 medal events across 30 sports, out of a total number of 329 events in 32 sports on the sports program in Paris.

Led by 42 Olympic champions, the Chinese delegation will count on athletes from six traditionally strong sports – table tennis, diving, weightlifting, shooting, gymnastics and badminton – to bolster its medal hopes in Paris, where they are expecting tougher challenges from emerging contenders from across the world.

To improve competitiveness in some Western-dominated sports, the Chinese delegation has hired 42 foreign coaches, trainers and supportive staff from 17 countries and regions to help Chinese athletes prepare for the Games. ANN/VNS