More than 300 Canadian Olympic athletes are ready to compete in Rio de Janeiro, and the team has its sight set on a top-12 finish in final medal standings, chef de mission Curt Harnett said Wednesday.

Harnett told reporters in Rio that Team Canada is expecting to win at least 19 medals -- one more than the country earned in the 2012 London Games. He said he was 鈥減umped鈥� for the 186 women and 128 men who will be vying for spots on the podium over the next three weeks.

鈥淭he hopes and dreams of thousands of athletes are about to play out,鈥� Harnett said.

Canadian Olympic Committee President Tricia Smith told the opening news conference on Wednesday that Team Canada is 鈥渞eady to take on the world鈥檚 best鈥� athletes.

鈥淭his is one of Canada鈥檚 strongest teams ever,鈥� she said.

 

Of the 314 Canadian athletes competing in Rio, 36 have earned top-five placements at their sports鈥� respective world championships.

"There are way more people vying for those medals than we have seen, especially if you look back 10 or 20 years," Ryan Cochrane, Canada's top hope in the pool, told 麻豆传媒' Peter Akman. He will provide the team with its first podium opportunity on Friday when he competes in the 400 metre freestyle. "I think our younger athletes, whether 16 to 18 or 27 to 30, are here to better our performances that we have."

Canadians also qualified for five team sports categories at these summer Olympics: women's soccer, rugby sevens and basketball, along with men's field hockey and volleyball. Four years ago in London, only women鈥檚 soccer and women鈥檚 basketball teams qualified.

Despite concerns about the Zika virus in Brazil and , Harnett said the COC feels 鈥渧ery comfortable鈥� with the safety of Olympic venues.

鈥淭he health and safety of our athletes is priority number one for us and we work with all of the various entities that are involved,鈥� he said. 鈥淎t this stage, we feel very comfortable.鈥�

The team's chief medical officer also believes that the water is safe.

"The water quality for the open water swim and triathlon is excellent," Dr. Bob McCormack said. "It is good as most of the water in Canada -- it meets international standards."

Harnett said Canadian athletes are 鈥�100 per cent focused鈥� on their performance and the COC is there to support them every step of the way.