Ren Chengyuan was just a spectator in Athens four years ago but today the 22-year-old mountain biker is riding for Olympic glory.

The Jiangsu native hopes her hard work will pay off at the Laoshan Olympic track after her meteoric rise from nowhere in the world ranking to be among the world's best since the past Games.

"I am not too shy to say my goal is to win a 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 medal contender. It's amazing."

Despite the country's 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 some select teammates in making their presence felt by winning International Cycling Union (UCI) World Cup titles and rocketing up the world rankings.

She 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. Tomorrow they will put China top of the rankings for the first time. Their coach says they have what it takes to win to reach the top of their sport.

"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 confident she can deliver for China after each country was allowed to send just two riders of each sex to any cycling discipline at the Olympics.

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