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China vs. America, Mike Celizic of MSNBC believes it's among the best stories at this summer's Olympics event in Beijing.
Since the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the dismantling of the drug-fueled East German sports machine, the United States has ruled the medal standings. China wants to dethrone the Americans in the nation's athletic coming-out party. They've got the home-field advantage, which always spurs the home team to greater heights. Whether they've got the depth to topple Team U.S.A. is another matter. China will probably finish second, but the competition between the two athletic superpowers will be a major theme of the Games.
In fact, China had the odds of winning the most gold medals at this year's Olympics. China had odds of -180 while the US came in with odds of +110 whereby a $100 bet would pay out $110 at SBG Global
The head of the U.S. Olympic Committee said the Chinese in recent years have been training some 260,000 athletes at nearly 2,200 sports schools around the country, a single-minded dedication whose reward will become obvious in the coming weeks, according to a report in the Salt Lake City Tribune.
The looming prospect of Chinese domination in Beijing has helped keep the Americans from setting a medal target, as they have done in past Olympics. Instead, leaders like Scherr have insisted they are primarily focused in assuring the Americans who compete are free of performance-enhancing drugs and doping scandals.
The USA has never finished lower than third place in any Olympics standings, however.
They are likely to excel in basketball, swimming and even women's soccer, based on odds makers predictions.
As for China, table tennis, diving, gymnastics, shooting, weightlifting, badminton, rowing and taekwondo should favor the host country. China will have its biggest Olympic team yet with some 630 athletes representing the country at this year's Summer Olympics.
"Team USA will be hard pressed to maintain its supremacy at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing," said former U.S. Olympic Committee member Curt Hamakawa, now director of the Center for International Sport Business at Western New England College.
"In terms of its gold-medal progression since 1996 (16 in 1996, 28 in 2000, and 32 in 2004), China is clearly poised to overtake Team USA in 2008.
"This is all the more plausible given the United States' gold-medal regression over this same period (44 in '96, 38 in '00 and 36 in '04)."
