ED GRANEY

There is a certain race for Olympic supremacy here that has become more foregone conclusion than Jamaican sprinters being faster than your next thought. China might not dive away from these Games owning the most medals, but the United States is going to need six or seven extra basketball teams and a few more in softball to be in the same neighborhood when it comes to the shiny gold ones.

Which is exactly what all those 6-year-olds in underwear are about.

China, for decades, wanted more than anything to rule the sports world every four years, and a talent pool deeper than the Pacific from which to recruit has helped it realize that golden dream. It is a victory born in the humid, dated, unadorned halls of places such as the Shichahai Sports School, where Olympic champions deliver their first serves and make their first flips to glory.

There are 3,000 sports schools across this vast land, but few are in the class of the one along the west bank of this city's Back Lakes section. It is here where more than 600 athletes ranging in age from 6 to 18 eat, sleep, study, learn and otherwise live the sport identified through specific testing as ideal for their predicted size and talent.

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