BEIJING, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- China will send its largest delegation in history to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, said a senior sports official here on Thursday.

    "We will send more than 200 athletes and officials to Vancouver, it will be the largest delegation in history," Xiao Tian, vice president of the Chinese Olympic Committee (COC), told Xinhua at the One Year Countdown event of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games organized by the Canadian Embassy in China.

    Xiao refused to make predictions on the medals, while he expected Chinese athletes to make breakthrough in curling and snowboarding events.

    "Of course we would like to have better and better performance in every Games, but it's really hard to make predictions on the results," Xiao said.

    "Chinese athletes have improved quickly in curling and snowboarding recently and that increased our medal hopes."

    The previously unknown Chinese women's team surprised the curling world by winning the silver at the 2008 World Championship while their men's counterparts also made breakthrough by finishing fourth in their World Championship debut later last year.

    "Our athletes will also be competitive in women's short track, figure skating pairs event, women's speed skating and freestyle skiing aerials," Xiao added.

    China, who topped the medal table of the Beijing Games last summer, had sent 151 athletes and officials to the 2006 Torino Winter Games before finishing 14th with two golds, four silvers and five bronzes.