As usual, the United States and Russia are two of the strongest medal contenders in the Beijing Olympic Games. The two great sports powers both love and encourage sports and are cradles of innumerable sports stars.

The United States, a land of mass sports

The United States is an indisputable sports superpower. Since the first modern Olympiad was held in 1896, the country has never fallen out of the top three in terms of the medal tally. In all the summer Olympics since 1996, the United States has topped the medal table in terms of both the number of gold and the total number of medals.

Sports are an important part of the national tradition of the United States. Americans love sports just as they love steak, cheese and salad. All are indispensable to them. Sports are their favorite pastime. Children are taught that sports are something they must learn from a young age. In a survey, about 70 percent of Americans indicated that they played sports in their spare time, and 60 percent believed that a hobby was equivalent to sport. Americans think sports not only build strong bodies and wills, but also lift spirits and cultivate national pride. Team sports, in particular, can teach young people to work with others, and improve their understanding about life. Hence, Americans, from the president to the general public, are sports zealots. U.S. President George W. Bush has proudly admitted that he is a sports fanatic.

Nevertheless, Americans may not care about the number of Olympic medals they get as much as some other countries do. Many people think the medals are not the most important things for a country competing in the Olympic Games, especially in the post-Cold War era.

Unlike Chinese athletes, who are professionals, American athletes are trained in schools and clubs. Universities are major talent banks for the U.S. Olympic delegation. Take basketball as an example. Americans start playing basketball from a young age. Depending on their age group, young people can compete in elementary schools, in high school basketball tournaments and at college basketball championships. Outstanding players may be spotted by the National Basketball Association (NBA) and become high-paid professionals.

The United States has never fallen out of the top three in the Olympic medal table, except for 1980, when it boycotted the Moscow Olympics for political reasons. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the United States lost a strong rival for Olympic medals.

The United States sent a 596-member delegation to Beijing this August, including 310 male athletes and 286 females.

Before leaving for the Beijing Games, Jim Sherr, Chief Executive Officer of the U.S. Olympic Committee, said that their athletes understood that they would face challenges and were prepared psychologically. They would meet the challenges with confidence, he said.

The United States reigns in swimming events. At the Athens Games, American swimmers pocketed 28 medals, including 12 golds, 9 silvers and 7 bronzes. Swimming medals accounted for 22 percent of the total. In the 2007 World Aquatics Championships held in Melbourne, American swimmers won 36 medals, 20 of which were golds, and broke 12 world records. This was the best score of the U.S. swimming squad. In this Olympics, Michael Phelps is no doubt one of the most watched athletes. His goal is to become the first player to win eight Olympic gold medals, in order to break the seven-golds-in-one-Olympic record set by Mark Spitz.

Another American swimming star is 41-year-old Dara Torres. She is a legendary athlete who competed in the 1984, 1988, 1992 and 2000 Olympic Games and won nine medals, including four golds, one silver and four bronzes.

With 15 Olympic medallists, 31 medallists in track and field world outdoor championships, and 11 holders of American national records, the U.S. track and field team is also a dream team. The team pocketed 25 medals including eight golds at the 2004 Athens Games, and 26 medals including 14 golds at the 2007 World Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Osaka. Up to this July, the United States topped the list of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) in 14 events, of which eight were men's events and six were women's events. The team is expected to win more than 12 golds in Beijing.

The U.S. men's basketball team is perhaps the most eye-catching team in Beijing. Basketball was born in the United States, and is one of the favorite sports of Americans. At the Athens Olympics in 2004, the U.S. team only earned a bronze, which was unbefitting for such a dream team. To reclaim U.S. dominance in basketball, a number of top NBA players, including Kobe Bryant, joined the national team and sweated it out for the Beijing Games. With such an assembly of NBA mega-stars, this U.S. team is the most expensive in the Olympic history.

In addition to the above-mentioned traditional events, the United States has a competitive edge in gymnastics, shooting, tennis, fencing, softball, women's basketball and women's football.

Russia, a resurrected sports power

Dozens of kilometers from Moscow stands the Podolsk Olympic Training Center. The colossal sports complex built more than a half-century ago is dilapidated, just as some other relics of the Cold War era. The center has witnessed the ups and downs of sport in Russia.

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union and the United States competed in literally any field, and sports of course were no exception. Ever since its debut in the Olympic Games in 1952, the Soviet Union has been a dominating power in the summer Olympics, often alternating with the United States for first and second place in the medal table. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, its legacy was passed down to Russia. Russia stumbled in terms of Olympic performance. Investment in sports was cut sharply, and many athletes were sent home, while the remaining athletes and coaches had a hard time making a living. As talented players left, the national team lost some of its steam. In 1992, the Commonwealth of Independent States, primarily made up of Russians, managed to ascend to the top of the Summer Games scorecard with 45 gold medals. Yet in 1996, when Russia first competed as a country, it only bagged 26 gold medals, lagging far behind the United States. In 2000, although Russia won 32 gold medals in Sydney, it was still behind the United States. Four years later in Athens, while China rose to second place in terms of gold medals, Russia slid to third place with 27.

After Vladimir Putin became president, Russia's economy improved. The government has doubled its attention to sports. In recent years, Russia has invested generously in sports, and the investment seems to be gradually paying off. Russia hopes that sports will unite its people in rejuvenating the nation. It has rich sports resources, including cutting-edge training systems and first-rate players and coaches. These will help the country regain its past glory.

The Olympic delegation from Russia is composed of 847 members, including 467 athletes, 337 officials and others. Although players are selected from the whole country, a disproportionately large number of them are from large cities such as Moscow, which is home to 121 players on the team sent to Beijing. On July 29, the Kremlin hosted a grand ceremony for all members of the Olympic delegation. President Medvedev met with them and the pope of the Eastern Orthodox Church presided over a prayer for the delegation.

Vladimir Vasin, Chef de Mission of the Russian Olympic delegation predicted before the opening of the Beijing Games that Russian athletes would get about 30 gold medals in 10 to 15 events, including track and field, swimming, synchronized swimming, shooting, tennis and volleyball. He estimated their total medal tally would be around 80.

Yelena Isinbayeva, a polevaulter, is one of the most celebrated gold medal hopefuls in Russia. She won a gold medal in the 2004 Olympics with a new world record. Not long ago, she cleared a height of 5.04 meters, setting her 23rd world record. She was elected Female Athlete of the Year by the International Association of Athletics Federation in 2005, and Laureus World Sportswoman for the 2006 season. Laureus awards are given annually to outstanding athletes selected by experts primarily from the media in many countries.

Andrei Kirilenko, the flag carrier of the Russian Olympic delegation, is a flagship player. He is a professional basketball player currently playing for the Utah Jazz in the NBA. In 2007, he led the Russian men's basketball team and reclaimed the European championship. This team will be a strong contender for gold in Beijing.

In the past decade or so, Dmitri Sautin has been the only player that can make Chinese male divers nervous. Since his first appearance in international competition in 1991, Sautin has snatched two Olympic gold medals and six world championships. The 33-year-old Russian sportsman is set to push his career to a new height in Beijing and then retire.

Boxing and wresting are two gold mines for Russian teams. Makhach Murtazaliev, a leading wrestler in Russia, is a key gold digger. He was European champion in 2007, and was named among the top 10 Russian athletes in 2007. At this moment, nothing would interest him more than the title of an Olympic champion.

Russia has a strong competitive edge in synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics as well. At the 2004 Games, two Russian swimmers, Anastasia Davydova and Anastasia Ermakova, won gold in duet synchronized swimming, and the pair also performed on the gold-winning Russian team. Ermakova, the two-time Olympic champion, believes the Russian team will reinforce their position this August in Beijing.

The author is with the Policy and Law Department of the State General Administration of Sport