China hopes Olympics golden

BEIJING - The interior of the metallic and shiny Beijing Organizing Committee office building feels torn from a futuristic science fiction movie. In here, there's one set of numbers that everyone seems to know: 102-92-63. You would think that those numbers were a code, a confidential string of digits that perhaps unlocks a room, safe or state secret.

Though it's not quite that clandestine, make no mistake, it is a code of sorts. The final medal tally at the 2004 Summer Games: United States 102, Russia 92, China, 63.

Depending on what you choose to believe or to whom you choose to listen, those numbers are a driving force behind the Summer Games, as China looks to flex its political and economic muscle on a global sporting stage. If unlocked, we will have the answer to one of the sporting world's biggest questions of 2008: Can China unseat the United States as the Summer Games' top medal winner?