By Xinhua,
Beijing : The German Olympic Committee (DOSB) has selected 436 athletes for the Beijing Games.
The current team is slightly smaller than the 452 athletes in Athens Games in 2004 but a little bigger than the 428 who went to Sydney 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 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.