¡¡   By Sportswriter Ma Xiangfei     

    BEIJING, July 26 (Xinhuanet) -- The expected hot weather will work against all the athletes in this summer's Athens Olympic Games and it is no exc eption for the Chinese.

    The Mediterranean climate will not bring the south European country much rain but scorching sunshine during the Aug. 13-29 Games when the temperature can rise to as high as 40 Celsius degrees.

    To protect the Chinese contingent from high temperature, a kind of cryostatic wear was invented to keep the athletes' bodies cool.

    The vest, made of special cryostatic materials, will be kept in a refrigerator or the ice water for some time before an athlete puts it on.

    "They will feel very cool after putting on the vests, which are ventilative and are ultraviolet radiation-proof," said Feng Lianshi, one of the experts developing the vests.

    "But they should not wear it more than 20 minutes every time, nor should they have it on during conmpetition," Feng warned.

    While the low-temperature vests help the Chinese athletes reserve strength, some sports wear will give them a hand to create better results.

    The famous "shark skin", received by the top swimmers, including Australia's treble Olympic champion Ian Thorpe and Barcelona world champion Michael Phelps of the United States, in the past four years, has been modified by the producer to suit the Chinese swimmers.

    "The producers have modified the swimming suits which were formerly designed according to western athletes and we chose the half-length instead of the full-body suits," said head coach Zhao Ge.

    When top swimmers have brought their muscle forces and the technique to a maximal display, reducing drag becomes another way to improve speed.

    Thus manufacturers of swimming attire developed the series of suits made of a fabric, which was designed to mimic the propertiesof a shark's skin. The drag reducing effect of these suits were claimed to be up to 7.5%.

    High-tech in training, however, seems to be the more important for the athletes to achieve good results.

    Chinese diving team, the five-gold winners at last Olympics, employ a 3D imaging system to give the divers a full view of everymove they do in the air.

    "It is of great help," said Li Dazheng, top diving official in the Chinese Swimming Association. "It enables the divers to see every detail of their series of moves starting from jumping off." Enditem