In the afternoon of April 18, 2008, one day before the begining of Good Luck Beijing CNPC 2008 Women's Basketball International Invitational Tournament, news service staff of the Good Luck Beijing Sports Events Organizing committee interviewed Anne Donovan, the head coach of the US Women Basketball Team. Shortly after they finished warm-UP training session in Beijing Olympic Basketball Gymnasium, Anne expressed her confidence to compete the gold medal in Beijing Olympics, and worried about some problems of her team, such as injury, lack of help from WNBA, many new players who lack experience and so on. Additional, she expressed her impression of Beijing.

Q: What is your team's goal in this tournament? And what is the team's focus of training?
A: Our goal is just come in and play as well as we can play. This is a four days of practice. A pretty new team, and a lot of young players... So our focus and goals are just play well, to compete hard and hopefully to win the games.

Q: As we know, your team lost the seminal final in Bazil, and many teams made rapid progress in recent years. Whether you think your team is NO.1 or not now? Which team will be your biggest opponent in Olympics?
A: I hope we are NO.1, but I think the Australia and the Russia are very good, and I think the three teams are very close. So I know we have a lot of work to do to win the gold medal. I think both the Russia and the Australla are very strong. I think China will do well too, I really do. I think they have spent lot of time and resource in training. I think they have a very good team, well coach. They are getting more and more confident, which is their issue in the past. I think they will compete for a medal.

Q: There is a big change in team's lineup, only five players attended 2007 FIBA Americas Championship in Chile, how do the absence of those frequenters (such as Sue Bird, Tamika Catchings) affect the team?
A: It's very difficult. We have very little continuity to train our players, so we just train a lot of players. And when we come back in August, our team will be different, and all those players you mention will be with us, so we will be much stronger in August. These are young players we have here. So we are world developing these young players. And their futures will be Olmpians, but most of these players will not play in August.

Q: We know, you brought the top three players of 2008 Draft Lottery and a NCAA player to here, why did the committee decide to add many young girls to the team?
A: Our older players are in Europe and play for the European teams now, so they can't come. So our choice was bring young payers and develop them for another Olympics, you know, 2012 Olympics.

Q: Although Lisa Leslie did not join the team for the 2007 FIBA Americas Championship, how important is Lisa to your tactics in coming Olympics?
A: She is tremendously important, she is healthy now, and she had a baby, she looks fantastic, she is so important to what we do... And we haven't had Lisa from 2004, so we will get better with Lisa for sure.

Q: In the court, does Lisa play a role of coach?
A: Yes, our old strength players very much help coach.

Q: In the training, Lisa appeared outside frequently, and she passed the ball, picked for the guards and tried longshot. Did you want to change her style in future games?
 A: No, we still want her to go inside, always!

Q: In the US, many people thought playing many national games is an injury to Yao Ming's health, and which is also an injury to Houston Rocket. You used to be the head coach in Seattle. So what's your opinion on the issue of Yao Ming?
A: I think players have to play. He could get her here, and he could get her for Houston, it happens unpredicable, so a coach can control that. When the players go to NBA, they have to do that.

Q: In your team, don't you worry about this problem?
A: I'm worried, worried for injury. Tamika Catchings is still injuried. So we worry all the time that they won't be healthy. But any team has the same problem, an all of us have the same problem. And I think our players are strong minded, they know WNBA season - Olympics - WNBA, so they prepare mentally.

Q: Does the WNBA help your preparation for the Olympics?
A: No, it doesn't help. We have only ten days of training together. So it's all WNBA (games) and then ten days before we come, so it can be very challenging.

Q: What's your impression of Beijing?
A: This is just beautiful, absolutely lovely. It's very impressive we came to here, so glad to here for this venue. And the weather is great, it's nice and warm. Eating is great, and food is wonderful. No problems.