Name: Zhang Yining
Date of Birth: October 5, 1981 in Beijing
Entry for Beijing Games: women's table tennis
Career highlights: Winner, women's doubles, 2003 world championships; Gold medal, singles, 2004 Athens Olympics; Gold medal, doubles, 2004 Athens Olympics; Winner, singles, 2005 world championships; Winner, doubles, 2005 world championships
For Zhang Yining the Beijing Olympics are at home in the truest sense of the word. Peking University Stadium, where the table tennis competition will be staged, is less than 20km from where she grew up in southern Beijing's Chongwen district.
Zhang lacks the high profile enjoyed by hurdler Liu Xiang and basketball sar Yao Ming, but success in her home city could launch her to superstardom and a role as Beijing's sporting ambassador.
A product of the mainland's table tennis cult fed by decades of international domination, Zhang's career started thanks to her fanatical uncle, who introduced her to a friend and grassroots youth coach.