Olympic gold has eluded Chinese pairs skaters for several years now.

At the Salt Lake City Games in 2002, Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo were among the title contenders but settled for bronze.

Shen Xue/Zhao Hongbo

Pang Qing/Tong Jian

Zhang Dan/Zhang Hao

Four years later in Turin, the Chinese brought another strong group of skaters, but narrowly missed the target as Shen/Zhao, Zhang Dan/Zhang Hao, and Pang Qing/Tong Jian captured three of the top four places, but no gold.

"We will never give up," said Chinese head coach Yao Bin, whom home fans know as the "godfather of Chinese figure skating".

"We have no choice but to work harder to make our dream come true at Vancouver."

Even though Shen/Zhao decided to take an indefinite break from skating in early 2007, Zhang/Zhang, the runners-up at the Turin Games, and Pang/Tong, the 2006 world champions, will continue their pursuit of China's first-ever Olympic figure skating gold. But they will face stiff competition from their European and American rivals.

At the World Grand Prix Finals one week ago, Zhang/Zhang and Pang/Tong followed a familiar script, finishing second and third, respectively, behind Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany.

"We have no advantage at all," coach Yao said. "On the contrary, the new rules gave Savchenko/Szolkowy an advantage over Zhang/Zhang and Pang/Tong in difficulty assessment, which means Savchenko/Szolkowy would have a better chance to win if all three pairs finished their programs cleanly.

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