The Beijing skyline clicked on Sunday. (Reuters)

Beijing, July 20: The Olympic host is straining every sinew to dislodge the US from the top of the medals table, a badge of global superpower status.

China’s emerging rivalry with America as a global superpower will move into the sporting arena next month as its Olympic athletes strive to oust their US counterparts from the top of the medals table for the first time.

In a showdown reminiscent of the Cold War-era battles for Olympian dominance, China has put unprecedented effort into ensuring that Beijing 2008 will be a sporting triumph as well as a logistical one.

With their athletes already dominant in events such as gymnastics, table tennis and martial arts, Chinese sporting chiefs have spent the past few years focusing on disciplines where Americans have traditionally excelled, including swimming, basketball and athletics.

Such is the host nation’s eagerness to sweep the board that it has borrowed Western sporting expertise: honing the skills of the Chinese women’s basketball team, for example, is Australian coach Tom Maher.

He was drafted into the job to replace the Chinese coach after the team failed to make the top eight in the 2004 Athens Olympics.

China’s attempt to end America’s run of supremacy at the last three Games will add an East-West frisson not seen since the demise of the Soviet Union, which topped the medals board eight times in the post-war period.

While the rest of the world’s eyes will be on the heroics of the individual contestants, Chinese officials will pay closest attention to the total medal tally. Some expect America to take an early lead with the many swimming events in the first few days — but be squeezed by China as other disciplines kick in.

The increasing focus on athletics as the 16-day contest progresses may favour America in the final stages.

Meanwhile, giving both countries a run for their money will be increasingly oil-rich Russia, which, like China, sees the Games as an opportunity to underscore its new-found economic and political clout.

Darryl Seibel, a spokesperson for the US Olympic committee, said: “We expect this to be one of the most competitive Olympics in recent history. That is down to a combination of China’s investment in its Olympic programme, Russia’s decision to do the same and the policy of some nations like Britain, which are targeting specific medals in sports that are important to them. China has to be considered the favourite. Every host nation receives a huge boost.”

China’s new-found prowess in the international sporting arena is a product of both its increased openness to the outside world and its steady rise as a global economic gladiator.

Having boycotted the Games throughout the 1960s and 1970s because the International Olympic Committee recognised Taiwan as a member, the country notched up 15 gold medals in 1984, its first ever. By the Athens Games in 2004 it was in second place, winning 32 golds compared with America’s 36.

Gold medal tallies, rather than tallies that also include bronzes and silvers, are the yardstick used by the International Olympic Committee to judge which nation ranks best. This year, China’s gold share is likely to reach between 44 and 46 out of the 302 available, according to Simon Shibli, head of the Sport Industry Research Centre at Sheffield Hallam University.

“I predict they could top the table this year, based on them continuing their rate of improvement and factoring in the home nation effect,” he said.

America, he estimated, would win 38 to 39 golds, although he stressed that his detailed analysis had focused on China alone.