Ren Chengyuan was just a spectator at Athens 2004 but the 22-year-old mountain biker is going for gold at this summer's edition of the Games.

The Jiangsu native hopes to see her hard work pay off in four months time after she appeared from nowhere to join the ranks of the world's best in the space of the current Olympiad.

"I am not too shy to say my goal is to win the gold medal," she said. "I didn't even think about competing at the Olympics three or four years ago, but all of a sudden people are telling me that I'm a gold-medal contender. It's amazing."

Despite its 500 million cyclists, mountain biking is not an area in which China excels. Its best performance in the sport in Athens was a 17th-place finish from Ma Yanping.

Ren led the post-Athens charge, joining a select few teammates in making their presence felt by winning International Cycling Union (UCI) World Cup titles and rocketing up the world rankings.

Ren won China's first ever World Cup Series title in New Zealand last year and finished runner-up at the under-23 event of the World Championships in England.

She was later joined by teammate Liu Ying, who pocketed another World Cup title in Slovenia and won the "Good Luck Beijing" International Invitational on the Olympic track.

The pair now sits third and fourth on the UCI world rankings while fast-improving Wang Jingjing is at No 8. Today they put China top of the national rankings for the first time after the 2007 season.

Their coach says they have what it takes to win.

"What delights me most is that we have a group of athletes, not only one, with a chance to take gold at the Beijing Games," said Song Xiang. "They are playing a Western sport so there are huge challenges ahead.

"But I am happy to see them challenging the elite athletes. That's why they've been able to move up so fast."

Ren is confidant despite the fact that each country can only send two riders of each sex to any cycling discipline at the Olympics.

"I am not afraid of the challenge," she said.