The IHT comes through for the second time this week with another great feature. This time its about China’s Olympic athletic machine, which, much like the country’s communist government, is more soulless and unrelenting than any corporation.

Its a great read, I suggest you take a look. It paints a shocking picture of how athleticism is perceived in China, and how the communist government has turned sports into a government-subsidized, factory-like system of hardcore training – dedicated to maximizing gold medal returns and pushing its athletes as hard as a possible.

“An astonishing amount of manpower, money and goods have been poured in, so much so that it’s inappropriate to be revealed publicly,” said Lu Yuanzhen, a professor of sports sociology at the Academy of Sports Sciences at South China Normal University. If the country’s athletes do not perform up to expectations, he added, “the entire nation and its people will lose face.”

Not only do the Chinese push their athletes harder than any other, but they also have a nationwide system in place for identifying and cultivating athletes at an extremely young age:

Selection of athletes at the provincial level may begin when they are as young as 6, experts say, with as many as 2 percent of grade school students flagged as promising. These children are placed in all-expenses-paid sports schools and “filtered” through increasingly intensive competitions that weed out all but an elite 80,000 who find homes on provincial teams. Of those, only a tiny fraction will make the next big step, earning a place on China’s national team.

In many sports, parents can go years without seeing their children, and may speak to them only once or twice a year. But local and provincial officials are unstintingly attentive, showering gifts on the families during Spring Festival, China’s most important holiday, to make up for the children’s absence.

Of course, its assumed the Chinese government will always “take care” of their successful athletes by providing good jobs, housing, and pensions in the socialist system. But those spoils only go to the winners, meaning that this system of rewards is a huge motivator for athletes:

“Once you win a world championship, you can go to college for free, or work, or become an official. If you don’t, you get nothing but injuries all over your body. No diploma, no job, no skill.”

– Chen Xiaomin, a women’s weight-lifting champion

It harkens back to the image of the Soviet Union’s old Olympic hockey teams, which were technically a part of the Red Army. These professional-caliber players were enrolled in the army and received officer’s ranks, despite the fact none had any high-level military training.

So this is what we’re up against in Beijing: an athletic commission as ruthless as its mother government. Don’t be surprised if the US should place second in the so-called “medal-count” this year. There’s no way we’re pushing our athletes like this. Good luck, Team USA, United Kingdom, France, Jamaica, Angola, Australia, Korea, Japan, India, etc., etc. You’re going to need it!