Before leaving for the Beijing Games, Jim Sherr, Chief Executive Officer of United States 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 World Swimming Tournament held in Melbourne in 2007, 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 7-gold-in-one-Olympic record set by Mark Spitz.

Another American swimming star is the 41-year-old Dara Torres. She is a legendary athlete that 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 in the 2004 Athens Games; and 26 medals including 14 golds at the 2007 World Outdoor Track and Field Championship in Osaka. Up to this July, the United States toped 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. It is expected that the team will win more than 12 golds in Beijing.

The United States Men's National 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. In 2004 at the Athens Olympics, 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" one in the Olympic history.

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

Russia, a resurrected sporting power

Dozens of km from Moscow City 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 U.S. competed in literally any field, and sports off 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 the 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 got 32 gold medals in Sydney, it was still behind the United States. Four years later in Athens, while China rose to the second place in terms of gold medals, Russia slided to the third place with 27 golds.