The children expected to turn China's dreams of sporting excellence into medals have a punishing daily schedule at Beijing's top sports school, writes Clifford Coonan.

Inside a cavernous gymnastics hall, beneath a huge Chinese flag and a banner which reads "Pick the best shoots; build a good foundation; actively prepare for the 2008 Olympics", girls in leotards balance on beams, somersault into huge vats of sponge rubber and tumble and cartwheel across mats.

At the far end of the room, little boys with the muscle tone of grown men, wearing just their underpants, leap the vaults, hang from rings and do floor exercises. The atmosphere is one of concentration and discipline, even though most of the children are not even 10 years old.

The young athletes are at Beijing's top sports school, Shichahai, where young bodies and minds are moulded into complete, dedicated athletes. Their job thereafter will be to transform China's dreams of sporting excellence into reality.

Shichahai has produced 32 Olympic, world and world cup champions since it opened in 1958. There is a fairly good chance that it is currently training the Chinese stars for London in 2012, and even some for Beijing in 2008.

The school overlooks Beijing's Houhai district, a beautiful lake now ringed by trendy nightspots, and its pupils are coached in all kinds of sports, including table tennis, badminton, taekwondo, boxing, kick-boxing, wushu and weight-lifting. And of course gymnastics.

Niu Sizhuo is eight, but there's a steely determination in her gaze as she hangs from the bars. Then she starts to swing, a blur as she manoeuvres quickly along the bars with astonishing dexterity. "My dream is to win the World Championships. I want to be like my favourite athlete [Olympic gymnast] Zhang Nan," says Sizhuo. "I haven't taken part in competitions yet. But boys sometimes start these things a little younger than girls." Her determination and ambition are clear, if a little unsettling in one so young.

In the office block attached to the school you can find Shichahai's Hall of Fame, where former star athletes are remembered in photos. Its most famous graduate is Jet Li, the martial arts star who has made his name in the movies.

There are many pennants and cups from competitions played in Cuba, Russia and other Cold War communist allies during the period when China was sealed off, especially to the Western world. When Chinese athletes ventured out, it was only to like-minded states. China has some catching up to do when it comes to the Olympics. It first competed in Los Angeles in 1932 but then did not take part again until 1984, again in Los Angeles, after years of self-imposed isolation.

China's haul of 63 medals at the Athens games was impressive, but the country is unlikely to rest on its laurels when Beijing hosts the Olympics in 2008. The government and the Communist Party are determined the Beijing Games will provide a suitable showcase for the economic miracle of recent years. All of this puts major pressure on competitors.

Gao Shuai is nine years old and loves computer games but prefers gymnastics. He has been studying gymnastics for five years at Shichahai and his hero is Teng Haibin, an alumni at the school who competed in the Athens Games.

"My aim is to win the world championship; the world championship is the biggest event in gymnastics," says Gao. Gao's event is the single bar, and he won a gold at the national children's games.

Gymnastics coach Wang Zhijian, a muscular figure with a flat-top buzz cut and a mobile phone in his hand, watches the children, aged seven to nine years, go through their paces. "Between four and five we let them play around a bit with gymnastics to see if they have talent. They start proper training when they are slightly older," says Wang.

Children of this age group will not be ready for Beijing's Olympics, as they are still too young, he says. "At this stage it is more a case of training them and building up their interest in gymnastics. By the 2012 Olympics they will be about 15 years old, which is about the right age."

China's state-sponsored system has long been criticised by both foreign and domestic commentators for putting too much pressure on people, on focusing on producing superb athletes at the expense of individual happiness. The image is of cold, brutal training camps like prisons, with rare visits from distraught parents and constant ideological brainwashing. This came to a head with claims by British Olympic rower Matthew Pinsent that the children were being trained too hard and allegations that one child had been beaten by his coach.

The school's director, Liu Hongbin, vehemently denies that the children were being hit. "National laws and the rules of the school forbid the hitting of children. We've never discovered any cases of children being hit at the school and if we were to discover any we would deal with it very seriously indeed," says Liu. "I doubt very much that the papers that report such happenings have seen such goings-on with their own eyes and I think their reports should be thoroughly investigated."

Shichahai certainly has a tough regime and puts pressure on the young athletes, but the youngsters I've seen on two visits to the school seem happy enough - the atmosphere is the same as a school gym anywhere in the world.

These are children whose skills give them privileges that millions of other Chinese kids don't have, and a chance of making something of themselves in the future, so they are prepared to put up with the rigorous programme to excel. As the director points out, they always thank the school when they're on the medals podium, so clearly their memories aren't all bad. The school has around 500 students, some are on scholarships which cover food, board and education and some of them are fee-paying.

The youngsters have a punishing schedule, getting up at 7am with 30 minutes of exercise and breakfast before classes at eight in the nearby Shichahai primary school until just before noon. They study Chinese, maths and English, a core curriculum designed to leave lots of room for sport. Despite the fact they spend less time in classes for academic subjects, Wang Zhijian says that it doesn't have any negative effect on them.

"The ones who do a lot of physical exercise are often quite good in class. They learn a lot of self-control," he says.

Lunch, like all the meals at Shichahai, is specially planned and prepared for budding sports stars. "They are given more fish and not much meat, which can make you fat, a lot of vegetables and other foods with high nutritious value," says Wang Zhijian. They have live-in teacher/carers - one to every seven kids - who are there to help the students in day-to-day activities and to play a parental role for some of the younger kids.

There are around 90 coaches, working on a rota system, who live in the same dormitories as the students when working. After lunch, pupils sleep and chill out for a couple of hours before an afternoon of training until 5pm. They then shower, eat and do homework before lights-out at 10pm. They go home for weekends.

Most pupils come from lower-level state-run district sports schools, while others are talent-spotted in kindergartens or are brought here by ambitious parents. The children undergo a rigorous physical examination. The top students - as many as 60 to 70 per cent, officials say - move up to Beijing team or to one of the 38 other provincial level outfits which are a stepping-stone to the national team. The others are sent home.

Badminton player Zhang Jinkang is 19 years old, the oldest in her class, and her dream is to take part in the Olympics. "All sports professionals want to take part in the Olympics. After all, it's got the world's biggest badminton competition," she says. Zhang insists there are no competitive pressures among the classmates. "It is stressful for all of us. Obviously we are competitive when we are playing against each other but in normal times, we are friends."

Ping-pong noises in the next hall announce the sport for which China is probably best known, table tennis. Li Shaohua, who coaches eight- to 12-year-old ping-pong students, has been at Shichahai for 15 years, before which he played the game for the team from Shanxi province. "Skills have developed a lot in the past 15 years. Generally, skills have advanced and the student's ability to attack has improved," he says.

Li's students will be too young to take part in Beijing but they have an eye on London in 2012. "If we manage to train up one student from our class to be selected for the Olympics, it is a huge achievement. The standard of China's table tennis is very high and you have to face a high level of competition to be selected. Because of this, if you do have the chance to participate, it is very likely you will win a medal."

Eight-year-old Liu Yirui has only been here for four months. "I have seen table-tennis matches being played on television. I liked it and I wanted to play. I haven't really thought about the Olympics that much," she says. Her home town is in Jilin and her parents have sent her to train in Beijing. They are paying for her education here.

Unsurprisingly, her sports icon is Zhang Yining, the Chinese table-tennis champion. Most of the children at Shichahai name the leaders in their sports as their idols, though some do admit a sneaking regard for football stars such as David Beckham. They may be on their way to being top athletes, but kids will be kids.