The United States will be the underdogs in the battle for Olympic medals in Beijing because the Chinese have become much stronger since the Athens Games four years ago, the US Olympic Committee said on Wednesday.

“The Chinese team are exceptionally strong and predicted by almost all to lead the medal count in these Games, and the gold medal count,” Chief Executive Office Jim Scherr said.

“We really look at this as a three-country race with China leading the way between Russia and the US and China,” the former wrestling Olympian told a news conference.

The Chinese are aiming to win more gold medals during the August 8-24 Beijing Games than the 32 they won at Athens, when they finished second behind the Americans’ 36.

The United States grabbed the most medals overall four years ago — 102, compared with Russia’s 92 and China’s 63.

Chinese officials have played down their chances of overtaking the Americans despite home advantage and heavy investment in training potential medalists.

Some point to China’s weakness in swimming and athletics, in which defending 110m hurdles champion Liu Xiang is the only real title contender.

However, the United States were making neither prediction nor boast for their 596 athletes on Wednesday.

“The majority of the pollsters are picking China to win the gold medal count, if not the total medal count. We make no predictions on whether we will be first or second or third,” Scherr said. Committee Chairman Peter Ueberroth told the news conference that, except in the winter games, the United States are “not used to being the underdogs in the Olympic Games.”

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