Germany grabs 436 slots for Olympics
16/7/2008 17:44
The German Olympic Committee (DOSB) has boosted its Olympic squad to 436
athletes for the Beijing Games after it picked the third batch of 231 athletes
yesterday.
The current team is slightly smaller than that of 452 athletes in
Athens Games in 2004, but a little bigger than the number of 428 athletes in
Sydney Games in 2000.
"We have a strong team. We want to be successful, we
want to combine performance and morale and have only clean success. We want to
be good ambassadors of our country," said DOSB president Thomas Bach.
Germany
came sixth in the Athens 2004 medal table with 13 gold, 16 silver and 20 bronze
medals.
The athletes include NBA star Dirk Nowitzki, discus throw world
champion Franka Dietzsch, tennis player Rainer Schuettler and swimmer Vipa
Bernhardt.
In addition to the athletes, the DOSB has also named 55 doctors
and physiotherapists as well as 240 trainers and support staff for next month's
event.
On July 26, German President Horst Koehler will officially announce
the German Olympic team. On July 27, the first group of German athletes will
arrive in Beijing for the opening of the Olympic village.
Xinhua
|
