President Alejandro Blanco of the Spanish Olympic Committee said on Monday that Spain would be taking its strongest ever team to the Beijing Olympics.

Speaking in Diario Marca, Blanco was full of confidence about Spanish ambitions, but he refused to be drawn on how many medals his country would win at the Olympic Games.

"I don't talk about medals, first of all we have to have our definitive squad decided, but this cycle of four years has been the best in the history of Spanish sport and we have more chances of being on the podium than ever."

"We won 22 medals in Barcelona, 17 in Atlanta, 11 in Sydney and 19 in Athens. Now we are traveling to Beijing expecting to get great results. We are taking a stronger team than the ones we took to Sydney or Athens. The fact that there are six reigning world champions in our squad means that we have got really strong medal options: better than ever," said Blanco.

The president nevertheless tried to inject a note of caution into his words.

"In terms of results, Spanish sport is enjoying its best moments ever, but we have to be prudent. We are going to take 292 sports people, which includes six teams. Nobody except China and the USA plus three more, who are taking seven teams, are taking that many. We are taking some extraordinary athletes, some of whom are a force in the world," he said.

Blanco then said where he thought the Spanish would do well.

"Synchronized swimming has come on a long way as has shooting and we do well in combat sports, the triathlon, gymnastics and canoing, while the basketball team is world champion and we have a great chance in sailing. We have a whole range of sports with more quality than ever," he said.

Above all Blanco insisted that Spain had to try and uphold the Olympic ideal of competing and giving your best, no matter what the final result.

"The first success is actually getting to the Games, the next thing is winning a medal and only then do you think about what color it is. We had never won more than six medals before Barcelona and although we have a lot of people who can win gold, even if they don't win, we are not going to say they have failed," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency July 22, 2008)