TURIN, Feb. 9 (Xinhuanet) -- Summer Olympic powerhouse China is seeking a strong hit in the coming 20th Winter Olympic Games as they hoped to make sound performance and achieve better results in Turin.

"China is still a winter sports fledgling, but we worked quite hard these years. The winter sport in China has developed very fast, especially the last four years, and we hope the Chinese delegation will make strong show in Turin," Liu Peng, chef-de-mission of the Chinese delegation said in a flag raising ceremony held in the Olympic Village Bardonecchia on Thursday.

China fields a delegation of 151 members, of which 76 are athletes. They will enter nine of the 17 sports at the Feb. 10-26 event in Turin.

"China send the largest-ever delegation to attend the winter Olympics since we made our debut in the winter Games in 1980," said Cui Dalin, deputy chef-de-mission told Xinhua after the ceremony.

"It is also the first time that the number of the athletes in snow events exceeds those in ice events. Though we are just rookies in snow events, our athletes are confident to try their best in the Games," Cui added.

China will take part in Alpine skiing, biathlon, cross-country skiing, figure skating, freestyle skiing, ski jumping, as well as short track speed skating, snowboard and speed skating in the 17-day Olympic feast. Forty-two athletes will attend the snow events.

China, ranked second in the Athens Summer Olympics in the medal tally, ended its winter Olympic gold medal drought as short track speed skater Yang Yang (A) won two gold medals in the Salt Lake City Games in 2002 and was placed 13th in the medal tally.

The winning hope for the Chinese delegation lies in short-track speed skating, headed by Yang Yang (A), figure skating, speed skating and women's freestyle aerials, marked by Li Nina, current leader in the World Cup rankings. Enditem