Remember Project 119, the magic number of achievable medal wins calculated by China's science-minded sports chiefs as they prepared for the country's moment in the Olympic sun in 2008? It was a scheme drawn up by the General Administration for Sports (GAS) and sought to widen Team China's medal-winning disciplines. It yielded notable breakthroughs in boxing, wrestling and other fringe sports in Beijing, and helped propel them to the top of the gold medal table and trump the US (51-36).
But the project was deemed largely a flop in athletics and in the pool, and the poor showing in these marquee events - those that truly put you in the pantheon of great sporting nations - was a humiliation for exposing the country's Achilles' heel. The odd three digits, 1-1-9, conjured up in some minds sinister Orwellian Room 101 overtones. Just what did Project 119 entail? How did it achieve its results, many sports critics asked. What dark methods were deployed in China's Room 119 - better calculated as its 3,000 secretive training camps - to turn its maths into medals?
Such is the secretive nature of the GAS, the answers to these burning questions remain mysteries. What is known is that after the project's failure to deliver the medal haul in the prized events, the omniscient sports chiefs were determined to amend the situation in London. And they are clearly succeeding in their quest. Hangzhou human jet-ski Ye Shiwen, the teenage swimming sensation who dived into the London Aquatics centre on Sunday and powered to a gold medal in sensational style, is a later model of the 119 blueprint.
The 16-year-old swimming prodigy has been finely tuned to leave her competitors in her wake, and with an extraordinary performance she smashed the world record by swimming the final freestyle 50 metres of the 400m individual medley in 28.93 seconds.
Her breathtaking swim stunned spectators and saw the international swimming fraternity drop its collective jaw with a loud thud. Not only was the youngster a whole five seconds quicker than her previous best, the split was also faster than that of 27-year-old American Ryan Lochte, who minutes earlier won gold in the men's 400m individual medley.
Ye's swim also raised eyebrows in millions of minds. Just how did she - and China - manage this otherwise improbable human feat and take the Olympic motto Citius, Altius, Fortius - Faster, Higher, Stronger - to dizzying new heights?
BBC presenter Claire Balding invited former British Olympian turned TV studio pundit Mark Foster to add oxygen to the growing air of disbelief. 'How many questions will there be, Mark, about somebody who can suddenly swim so much faster than she has ever swum before?' Balding asked.