While you’re expected to root for your own country’s athletes at the Olympics, you’ll score valuable face points with your Chinese comrades by knowing a few of their favorites. No, not just Yao Ming. Here are five other Chinese Olympic hopefuls with huge expectations riding on their athletic shoulders.

Li Xiaopeng – gymnastics

A hero since 16, after becoming China’s youngest gymnast to win a world final, Li Xiaopeng was voted 2003’s World Gymnast of the Year. However, he suffered a blow to his vaunted status in Athens, finishing 5^th place all around and earning only a bronze in the parallel bars, an event he had been unbeaten in since 2000.

Operated on for an ankle injury in 2005, Li came roaring back with a gold in the parallel bars at the 2006 World Cup Series. He is expected to be one of the anchors of the China men’s gymnastic squad.

Boyish good looks and his past successes have earned him the adoration of the press. Hopefully, being a media darling lightens the load of being the latest successor to the Li Jia Jun [Legion of Li’s], a dynasty founded by Li Ning.

Guo Jingjing – diving

If you’ve been dining at China’s McDonald’s with any regularity in the past three years, you’ve seen her pixyish grin on a cup, fry box, or banner. You may also have seen her kisser one everything from make up kits to phone ads. Although Guo Jingjing is only modeling her western counterparts, turning gold into more gold got her booted off the national team, although she was later reinstated.

Guo plans to retire after the 2008 games, her countrymen optimistic she will add at least a third gold medal to the two she won in Athens. In any event, her habit of mocking Canadians and dating Hong Kong billionaire playboys should keep her in the headlines for some time to come, regardless of her performance this summer.

Lin Dan – badminton

So what if the rackets resemble fly swatters, and the court is the size of a college dormitory room? Badminton is a game of lightning reflexes and iron stamina. And right now, nobody is playing the game better than Lin Dan.

Known as “Super Dan” to his legions of fans, the 24 year old is the current holder of the men’s world title, and has been dominating the singles field since 2004. Known for his blitz attacks and ability to make his opponent do most of the running, Dan has a reputation for currently being not only the most skilled, but also the most exciting player to watch.

Qiu Hongmei – weightlifting

The weightlifter ascends the platform, an anatomical marvel. Herculean arms and shoulders support a bull neck, all held up by oak tree thighs. The weightlifter bends, chalky hands grasping the bar, and with a deafening roar jerks 141 kilograms clean overhead. Then she smiles like a prom queen. She has just set a new world record.

Unlike your average self-effacing Chinese athlete, Qiu Hongmei is openly optimistic about her good chances for gold this summer. Such confidence seems almost cocky, considering she is still coming out from the shadow of fellow Chinese rival Chen Yanqing, a 58 kg class legend who had held the record before Qiu broke it last April.

One thing’s certain: the Chinese women will be the team to beat in weightlifting, with mini-titan Qiu leaving doubt and pain to lesser mortals. Forget the sky – this one could hold up half the earth, and give Atlas a breather.

Wang Liqin – table tennis

Call it lame, call it kids’ stuff. Just don’t call it ping pong [apparently there’s a difference]. In a game seemingly suited for the small man and his agility, Wang Liqin has revolutionized table tennis, with long-armed ferocious attacks that make him half Jabbar, half Tyson.

Having already won gold in Sydney, and the world championship in 2003 and 2005, Wang is a lock to medal in a sport that is as must-win for the Chinese as long distance running is for Kenya. There’s one small problem, which should make for some drama at the table: Wang lacks mental stamina, the ability to hold fast in drawn-out tie-breakers. If he can harness some of the savant in Forrest Gump’s idiot-savant approach, and follow the bouncing ball with unswerving focus, Wang could cement his reputation as the consummate new table tennis player – big, bad, and basically unbeatable.