Chinese athletes will take part in more Winter Olympic categories than ever before in the upcoming PyeongChang Games.

On Thursday, China's state-run Xinhua News Agency said 82 athletes will be dispatched to compete in 55 categories in the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

This marks a record number of sporting categories in the winter sporting event for Asia's largest nation, which participated in just ten categories at the Vancouver Olympics and nine categories at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.

The number of athletes competing in PyeongChang is also the second largest amount China has ever dispatched to a Winter Olympics. 

According to Xinhua, Beijing is aiming to strengthen and diversify the fields of winter sports played in the country ahead of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.