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BEIJING : China and Russia will be challenging the United States for top spot at next year's Beijing Olympics, a senior US Olympic Committee official said on Thursday.

"I anticipate a very competitive environment between China, Russia and the US for both the gold medal count and the total medal count," said Steven Roush, the committee's chief of sports performance.

The United States topped the gold medal table at the Athens Olympics in 2004 with 36. China was second with 32 and Russia came third with 27.

A senior Chinese sports official on Wednesday played down China's chances of toppling the Americans from the top of the table at the Beijing Games.

But Roush said the Chinese had already thrown down the gauntlet in 2006 when they won 43 gold medals to 36 for the United States and 35 for Russia in top level international events.

He added that home advantage would give China a "bump" in the medal standings that threatened US dominance.

"I anticipate that China will reap the benefits of (home advantage) as most host countries have in recent times ... and it is yet another factor that keeps me up at night when I'm determining how well we are going to do in 2008."

Roush is visiting Beijing at the head of a US Olympic goodwill delegation to mark the one-year countdown to next year's Olympics on August 8.

With him are five US Olympic hopefuls and a Paralympic champion.

They include table tennis player Gao Jun, badminton veteran Howard Bach, archer Lindsay Pian, fencer Iris Zimmerman and cyclist Don Robinson.

Jun won a silver medal for China at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics but became a US citizen and represented the Americans at the 2000 and 2004 Olympics.

Pian, whose grandparents are from the Beijing-Tianjin area and whose father Robert is a first generation Chinese-American, won a bronze for the US squad at the Pan American Games in Brazil prior to coming here.

Zimmerman, whose mother is from China, was fourth in team foil and 11th in individual foil at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Vietnamese-born Bach was the 2005 world doubles champions and reached the round of 16 in the event at the 2004 Olympics.

Robinson competes in BMX cycling, which makes its debut at the Beijing Olympics.

With them is Erin Popovich, the Paralympic swimmer who won seven gold medals in Athens in 2004. - AFP/de