Without Phelps, it's going to take something huge from the US to close gap

Even if they belly flop in diving, capsize in the kayak and get KO-ed in boxing, China's athletes have overpowered the United States.

The questions now for the bruised and battered Americans are: how did China do it? Are they going to do it again? And, if so, what can be done to stop them?

The easy answer to the first question is the mysterious Project 119. China is 'soft-targeting medals', spending 'untold millions' in pursuit of golds, tapping up the 'best coaches in the world' and 'locking away its athletes' for years at a time so all they can think of is winning. How else could they win eight golds in weightlifting, five in shooting, and so forth and so forth?

Project 119 is the perfect excuse for the underperforming US. Truth is, blaming Project 119 for their failure is about as convincing as the official age of China's female gymnasts.

Project 119 should in fact be called Project 122 after IOC roster changes, referring as it does to the number of medals available in athletics (47), swimming (34), canoe/kayak (16), rowing (14) and sailing (11).

In Athens, China won four gold medals in these five sports - Liu Xiang (men's 110m hurdles), Xing Huina (women's 10,000m), Luo Xuejuan (women's 100m breaststroke), and Yang Wenjun/Meng Guanliang (men's C2 canoe/kayak).