"All three girls have produced great results so there will be long discussions before the final name for the Olympic team will be announced," Wilson added.

In the opening stop of the season, Alisa Camplin of Australia, the 2002 Olympic gold medallist, came back from injury after 11 months of rest and finished fourth.

Although the main rival returned, the team showed little threat.

"Our team is stronger as a whole compared with the Australia's," said Xu.

Men are getting close

Compared with their female counterparts, the Chinese men's team is currently not that strong compared to the rest of the world, though they are getting closer to the world's best, according to coaches.

"We are working on building up the men's confidence and they're getting there," Wilson said. "They trained very hard in summer and have improved a lot. We're working very hard with the men's programme so we would like to see a medal in Italy from them."

The current men's Olympic team list includes Qiu Sen, Han Xiaopeng and the 25-year-old veteran Ou Xiaotao. Qiu and Han are ranked seventh and eighth respectively on the current World Cup circuit.

The whole team is continuing to train in Changchun at present and will head to Canada for the World Cup stops before the Turin Games.

"We will work hard on our training and keep focused," Wilson said. "We will also try to keep everybody healthy and safe."