A nation expects: All eyes on Liu Xiang as China seek 'Project 119' dividend

It will be merely symbolic, just as Freeman's 400metres gold in the Olympic Stadium in Sydney was for Australians in 2000. There will be vastly more gold medals from the country's other 638 competitors beyond the stadium's incredible lattice framework.

Action man: Liu Xiang racing in the China Open

Liu is as famous and feted within China as Freeman was in Australia, a superstar whose face adorns billboards in every city for products as diverse as tailored suits and soft drinks. His victory would be only the cherry on the cake of China's coming-out party. Winning the most gold medals is what counts to them.

When Beijing won the right to host these Games seven years ago, 'Project 119', a centrally-financed, State-organised programme to put China on top of the Olympic medal table for the first time in the Games' history, was given the go-ahead.

Times have changed since Liu Changchun became China's first Olympic athlete in 1932, a one-man team personally financed by the head of his university who was eliminated in the heats of the 100m and 200m and had to beg for his fare home from Chinese residents of Los Angeles.

Project 119, named after China's medal target, has been centrally financed with five billion yuan (about £381million), with floods of cash and foreign coaches made available to sports like athletics, canoeing, rowing and swimming, where China are traditionally weak.

That money came on top of the huge existing expenditure on schooling potential sports champions. There are 24,000 primary schools with a sports bias which cater for six million children.

From the age of 12, up to eight per cent of the most talented are channelled to 'spare time' sports schools where they board during the week. At 16, the best will become one of the 360,000 at the 2,600 regional and national sports schools, where sport is the priority, but only one in 10 graduate to the professional ranks, paid a government stipend of about £125 on top of their board and lodgings.

What entices parents to send them down this route is the privileged education and the possible rich pickings. Liu keeps half of his £7.2m earnings, as does Jie Zheng, whose prize money for reaching this year's Wimbledon semi-finals was about £190,000, although she said she was going to give her share to the Chinese earthquake appeal.

Rural parents of girls, for whom chances are hard to come by, are the most keen. 'Women hold up half the sky' says a Chinese proverb favoured by Chairman Mao to encourage social equality, but it happens in sport more than society in general.

So peasant girls accustomed to tough lifestyles have proved valuable raw material for sports bosses. In Athens, 63 per cent of China's medals were won by women, compared to 40 per cent for the United States and Russia.

Screen star: Liu Xiang¿s image fails to impress a Beijing train passenger

Project 119 signed up 60 foreign coaches, half of whom are still working there. Only success was acceptable. Sackings followed failures and even some of the successful fell foul of authorities by objecting to the strictures on athletes.

Josef Capousek, who steered Germany to 18 Olympic golds in canoeing, helped China qualify in a record nine of 12 events, but was dismissed for wanting to give his athletes time off.

But the programme is working. China shocked rowing with three golds at the World Championships in 2006. 'When you start to think about China's "home-field bump" that's when you start to lose sleep,' said U.S. Olympic performance director Steve Roush.

China aims to win all eight diving golds, all five badminton golds and all four in table tennis. They expect more than the five won in weightlifting last time and at least three in rowing.

Where they come head-to-head with the United States in gymnastics, they hope to turn the one won in Athens to four and to win their first cycling gold. Only in team sports have they failed utterly, just as the similarly state-organised sports programme of East Germany did.

Even in basketball, the national team sport in which they will field two NBA players, they will do well to make it past the quarterfinals.

Publicly, Chinese officials play down their chances. 'We're not a big sporting nation,' said deputy Sports Minister Cui Dalin.

But that is spin to enhance the impact of the achievement of their goal. Privately, the Chinese aim for 40 golds, a total the United States reached at their own 'home-field bump' Games in Atlanta in 1996 but not since.

The United States have finished top of the medals table in the last three Olympics but China have been creeping up on them - third in Sydney, second in Athens. When Rong Guotuan won China's first table tennis world title in 1956, Chairman Mao hailed it as a 'spiritual nuclear weapon'.

The over-hauling of America in Beijing would be no less explosive.

FIVE STARS OF THE EAST...

Liu Xiang (athletics)
The first Chinese man to win a track gold medal in 2004, when the sprint hurdler equalled Colin Jackson's world record time.

Yao Ming (basketball)
At 2.28metres (7ft 6in) tall, he plays for Houston Rockets in the NBA on a five-year £7.5million-a-year contract.

Guo Jingjing (diving)
Eight world championships, two Olympic golds from Athens and two silvers from Sydney.

Zhang Yining (table tennis)
The reigning women's Olympic champion in singles and doubles, she is world No1 despite losing in last year's world championship semis.

Gao Ling (badminton)
China's most successful shuttler after winning 14 major titles, including two Olympic golds. She won mixed doubles gold in 2000 and 2004.