Members of Chinese Synchronised Swimming team practise during a training session at Esporte Clube Pinheiros in Sao Paulo, Brazil, July 30, 2016. Chinese athletes has arrived at Sao Paulo's Esporte Clube Pinheiros, the pre-games training center of the Chinese Olympic delegation for the upcoming Rio Olympic Games. (Xinhua/Xu Zijian)
Chinese athletes has arrived at Sao Paulo's Esporte Clube Pinheiros, the pre-games training center of the Chinese Olympic delegation for the upcoming Rio Olympic Games.
According to the Chinese Olympic delegation, a total of 16 teams from the country will use the club in Brazil's most populous city to train and acclimatize ahead of the Games, scheduled to run from Aug 5-21. Considering the change in climate and jet lag from China, on-site training in Sao Paulo will be crucial for the performance of the athletes.
About half of China's Olympic athletes will go to the training base. The total number of Chinese representatives in Sao Paulo is 411, including athletes, coaches, officials and supporting staff.
The training base in Sao Paulo will operate from July 22 to Aug 15. Following their training, teams will travel the 430 kilometers northeast to Rio, where they will stay in the Olympic Village during the competitions.
According to Sun Yuanfu, Deputy Chef de Mission of the Pre-Games Training Camp of the Chinese delegation, said that, "with the flight distance of about 17,000km and flight time of about 22 hours, it is the farthest Olympic Games we have ever met. In order to get used to the weather, environment and time differences, the Chinese Olympic Committee decided to build up a pre-Games training camp of Chinese delegation to Rio Olympic Games in Brazil."
During these 25 days in the training camp, a total of 16 sports of 411 people will train here.
"Till now, table tennis, gymnastics and soccer team have finished their training and entered the Olympic Village in Rio already. 10 teams of more than 300 people are still training here, including swimming, badminton, boxing, canoe sprint, fencing, volleyball, weightlifting, waterpolo, synchronized swimming and golf. After that, we will have taekwondo, wrestling and modern pentathlon arrive one after another," Sun added.
Located in the exclusive neighborhood of Jardim Europa, Esporte Club Pinheiros covers an area of 170,000 square meters, the equivalent of about 10 soccer pitches.
Esporte Clube Pinheiros prepared to welcome the Chinese athletes by recruiting scores of volunteers to help accommodate the delegation. Meanwhile, to minimize disruption to its 38,000 members, the club will schedule times to make the facilities available exclusively to China' s athletes during their stay.
The club offers facilities for 15 sports: table tennis, artistic gymnastics, swimming, badminton, football, tennis, rugby, water polo, volleyball, fencing, boxing, athletics, synchronized swimming, modern pentathlon and taekwondo.
China has also reserved a hotel near Pinheiros, booking most of the available rooms.
China is not the only team preparing for the games outside of Rio. Britain will use the Minas Tenis Clube in Belo Horizonte as a pre-games base.
China will send 416 athletes, including 35 previous Olympic champions, to the Rio Olympics.
It is the largest Olympic delegation China has ever sent overseas.
China had the second-highest number of podium finishers at the London Olympics, with 88, including 38 gold medals. The USA, which had 530 athletes, led the tally with 103 medals, 46 of which were gold.
