Beijing - Chinese leaders, sports officials and athletes all deny that they have any target for gold medals, but many of the country's 1.3 billion people expect an all-out assault on the United States' position at the top of the Olympic tree. Some popular websites carry forecasts that Chinese competitors could win 41 to 46 golds in Beijing.
China took 32 golds at the last Olympics in Athens, four behind the US haul and five ahead of Russia.
This time, the Chinese Olympic Committee is likely to include a record number of about 560 athletes in its team for the Games.
The world's most populous nation is aiming for its first medals in some events and its first golds in others.
Several Chinese athletes are firm favourites in their events, but victory for others might surprise many global spectators.
The biggest haul of golds could come from China's diving, shooting or weightlifting teams, according to recent forecasts on the websites of state media.
Other strong favourites to win a clutch of golds each are the badminton, gymnastics and judo teams.
Women's over-75-kilogram weightlifter Mu Shuangshuang is one of the big gold-medal hopes.
"If I can compete at the Beijing Olympics, I won't disappoint my country," 24-year-old Mu told state media in early July.
Mu's greatest rival is expected to be reigning world champion Jang Mi-ran of South Korea.
"Jang is one of the motivations for me to improve," Mu said. "I like to show my real strength in fierce competitions."
Women's weightlifting has been one of the Chinese team's strongest events at recent Olympic Games, with Tang Gonghong taking gold in the women's over-75-kilograms event in Athens.
But with Olympic rules limiting each nation to competing in just four of the seven women's weightlifting categories, and such a strong Chinese team, Mu is still not certain of competing in Beijing.
After winning all four golds at the recent Chinese leg of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Pro Tour event, China's table tennis team is not surprisingly eyeing another clean sweep at the Olympic tournament.
China has already won 16 of the 20 golds awarded since table tennis was first included in the Olympics at Seoul in 1988.
"With four gold medals on offer at the Beijing Games in China's de facto national sport, any man or woman who fails to live up to expectations on the blue tables will have to endure some degree of private or public humiliation," the official China Daily said.
"Chinese people have greater expectations for us at the Beijing Games than ever before, so we have to give 110 per cent," the newspaper quoted Liu Guoliang, head coach of the Chinese table tennis team, as saying.
Some reports have focussed on the strides made by Chinese rowers following the launch of the "119 project" in 2000 to develop more medal prospects in swimming, canoeing, rowing, sailing, and track and field.
But the Chinese team's prospects of winning canoeing medals may have been jeopardized by the sacking of German coach Josef Capousek just six weeks ahead of the Olympics.
Capousek told Deutsche Presse-Agentur
