Hurdler Liu Xiang will be one of China's medal prospects at the Olympics. PICS/AFP

China is on the brink of becoming the most dominant sporting power in the world, with expectations running high that they will bounce the United States from the top of the Olympic medal table.

At Athens four years ago, China finished with 32 gold, 17 silver and 14 bronze medals to place second behind the United States.

In the drive to beat that mark and satisfy nationalist pride, the host nation is expected to field almost 600 athletes in August up from the 407 it sent to Greece.

It will also be aiming to add to the tally in lower profile disciplines such as canoeing, boxing, beach volleyball and synchronized swimming.

Yet Deputy Sports Minister Cui Dalin has been keen to play down expectations of a medals avalanche.

New experience

"This is the first Olympics where our athletes are competing at home and they face a whole new competition environment and a whole series of difficulties never encountered before," he said in the build-up.

"The gap between the Chinese competitors' performances in swimming and athletics and those for foreign competitors is vast," he said.

Cui is right about athletics and swimming. Only defending 110m hurdles champion Liu Xiang and London marathon winner Zhou Chunxiu have a realistic chance of seeing the Chinese flag hoisted in honour of a gold medal.

Their hopes of further glory were dented when 10,000m champion Xing Huina, who broke the world record in 2003, lost her battle against chronic injury and pulled out of the Games in May.

Apart from Liu and Zhou, Zhang Wenxiu is seen as an outside chance in the women's hammer throw after taking bronze at the world athletics championships last year.

For hurdler Liu, the first Chinese man to secure an Olympic athletics gold when he won in Athens, the pressure couldn't be greater.

Not only is he expected to win, but his hundreds of millions of fans will be looking for him to retake the world record from Cuba's Dayron Robles.

Assured success

Where China will almost certainly chalk up success is through its paddlers and shuttlers.

China is the dominant table tennis nation and with the likes of men's world numbers one and two, Wang Hao and Ma Lin, in action, and top-ranked Zhang Yining and Guo Yue on the women's side, a medal frenzy is almost guaranteed.

Golden couple Lin Dan and Xie Xingfang will carry Chinese hopes on the badminton courts, while the diving team will aim to top their six golds from nine medals at Athens.

Did you know?
Hungarian fencer Aladar Gerevich won medals in six consecutive Olympic games — from 1932 to 1960.