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Germany picks 389 Olympians

July 4, 2012

German athletes will compete in 23 of the 26 events at the Olympics in London this summer. The German Olympic committee has named its final team that will seek to improve on a fifth-place finish in Beijing in 2008.

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The Olympic flag
Image: picture-alliance / ASA

The German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) has named its final team for the games in London, starting later in July.

With 23 days to spare before the opening ceremony in the British capital, the DOSB announced a team of 389 athletes, with a further 15 reservists waiting in the wings. A further 279 members of backroom staff, from doctors through personal trainers, were also appointed for the games. That constitutes the smallest German Olympic team since reunification in 1991.

The team will be looking to beat its own record from the 2008 Beijing games, when it scored 16 gold medals, 10 silvers and a further 15 bronze. The side finished fifth in the medal tables, behind China, the US, Russia and Britain. That squad was made up of 440 athletes.

There are several medal hopes among the German side, not least after the country's strong showing in the European Athletic Championships in Helsinki, when it narrowly topped the medal charts ahead of Russia and France.

Javelin world champion Matthias de Zordo, the high-jumper Ariane Friedrich and the shot-putter Ralf Bartels are considered some of the team's greatest medal hopes.

The London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony will take place on July 27, though the football competition kicks off two days prior to that.

msh/mkg (dpa, SID)