Thrilling spectacle as Beijing wows the world again

To rousing cheers from the home crowd, the Chinese delegation marched in to the accompaniment of the famous song Ode to the Motherland, with men's Olympic bronze medalist speed skater Gao Tingyu and women's skeleton racer Zhao Dan bearing the flag for the host squad.

China will send 176 athletes, the most since the country's Winter Olympics debut at the 1980 Games, and 211 coaches and officials for competition in 104 medal events out of a total of 109 at the Beijing Winter Olympics. The Games will take place in three hosting areas－Beijing's downtown, its northwest Yanqing district and co-host Zhangjiakou, Hebei province－until Feb 20.

A traditional power in ice sports, such as short-track speed skating and figure skating, China is ambitiously expanding its strength to more snow-based sports and is aiming for the biggest medal haul at the home Games.

The short-track speed skating team, which has earned 10 of the total 13 Winter Olympic gold medals that China has won, is aiming to get the entire delegation off to a flying start on Saturday by competing for gold in the mixed relay event.