Beijing, China, December 11, 2007 - China's Women's Volleyball team has high hopes of defending its gold medal at next year's Olympic Games, but a chief official from the sport's governing body downplayed China's chances, admitting that no podium finish would also be acceptable, according to news reports published in China.

"The worst result we are ready to accept is fifth place," said Xu Li, director of the Volleyball Administrative Center and vice chairman of the Chinese Volleyball Association. "I am not kidding you. The chances of winning a gold, a silver, a bronze, or fourth or fifth place are all the same - it's 20 percent apiece."

Meanwhile, Chen Zhonghe, Head Coach of the Chinese Women’s team, said that though the Chinese team is facing various difficulties and challenges, on the whole the Chinese team is still one of the strong teams in the world and there are possibilities for us to defend the Olympic title,if we have good preparations in the intensive training season before the Olympic Games."

Xu and Chen have been scouting potential players in the National Volleyball League but are far from satisfied with the performances of some Olympic hopefuls.

"We are short of spikers and setters," admitted coach Chen. "We are looking for such players to make the team up. But there are few coming up in the league. Some of the players have good potential but are too young. They have no experience in big competitions and are not mentally strong. We do not have enough time to grow them up."

Chen blamed the lack of qualified players on the inadequate development of the sport's grassroots levels.

"The level of our national league is not reaching high standard. There are not enough people playing the sport in China, ". He said, adding "In the United States there are more than 100 pro teams. But in China we only have just over 100 pro players. It's a huge gap and makes the selection of good players difficult."

Chen said emerging powerhouses like the USA, which is coached by former Chinese star Lang Ping, the Netherlands and Italy have joined the traditional elites like Cuba, Brazil and Russia, making the battle for gold in Beijing all the more intense. "I came to Japan last month and watched the World Cup. It is very competitive. Italy and the United States are showing impressive improvement in the tournament and the number of our rivals to challenge China in increasing."

The Chinese Women's Volleyball Team will start its last intensive training season before the 2008 Olympic Games beginning January 1, 2008, in Zhangzhou. The team's coach, Chen Zhonghe, revealed that new faces may appear for training.

Young athletes like Zhang Xian and Wei Qiuyue, who were selected for last year's winter training, proved to be excellent.

"It depends on their capabilities," said Chen. Since Wei and Zhang had good performance in last year's competition, Chen decided to give more opportunities to freshmen.

The winter training season will be the most important training before the Olympic Games. It will last four months. During that period, the Chinese girls would still participate in a series of warm-up competitions to adjust and improve.