China is not looking to win the medal race at the Beijing Olympics. China came second to the United States in the gold medal standings in Athens in 2004 so it is possible, even probable, it could win the title as the world’s greatest sports power at its own Olympic Games.

But Sports Minister Liu Peng, a top Communist Party official, said a much more important measure of the success of the Beijing Games was whether they were well organized and other competing nations went away happy.

Liu Peng said, ‘We have never said that we will top the medal table in gold medals or in all medals at the Beijing Games. We have never set any targets like these. Gold medals are not the most important thing for the host nation. The most important thing is to make the 2008 Games a success and to make all the delegates from around the world satisfied.’

On the other hand failure in, for example, table tennis, would be considered not quite the article. Wang Nan and Zhang Yining, — both multiple world and Olympic champions — had no doubt that the country’s world supremacy would go unchallenged in their sport.

Wang said, ‘We are expecting to win. Coming second is failure for us and the team. As long as we don’t mess up ourselves, we’ll be okay, because nobody can beat us.’

Our picture shows Wang Nan and Zhang Yining as women’s doubles winners trophy at the world table tennis championships in Zagreb May 27, 2007. But South Korea has some amazing players who will be there fighting for a medal. Should be very interesting.