China is about to accomplish its goal of winning the most gold medals of any nation at the Beijing Olympics. But China’s athletes haven’t done it the way their state-run athletic program thought they would.

At the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, 119 gold medals were awarded in track and field, swimming, and outdoor water sports. China won only one of those, in perhaps the most obscure track and field event, the women’s 20-kilometer race walk. So the Chinese sports program went on a mission to get better in those sports.

Launching an initiative known as Project 119, China vowed to win a substantial share of those 119 golds as part of its overall goal of leading the gold medal count in the Beijing Games. America won 20 of the 119 track, swimming, and outdoor water gold medals in Sydney, and the Chinese thought it was possible to close that 19-gold-medal gap and equal the U.S. in those sports. China already regularly pulled talented young athletes out of their homes and brought them to national training centers, but after the games were awarded to Beijing in 2001, it stepped up its efforts to improve in the sports in which it had traditionally been weak.

By 2004, China had taken a small step in the right direction, winning four gold medals in the Project 119 sports: two in track and field, one in swimming, and one in canoe. The 2004 Olympics were China’s best overall showing ever, with Chinese athletes winning 32 gold medals, 17 silver medals, and 14 bronze medals, finishing second to Team USA in gold medals and third behind the U.S. and Russia in total medals.

But the Chinese still had a long way to go before they could call themselves the top athletic country in the world. America won 21 gold medals in track, swimming, and outdoor water sports in 2004, and led all nations in both gold medals and total medals.

Now the Beijing Games — the ultimate proving ground for Project 119 — are almost over, and China has 46 gold medals, by far the most of any country, and more gold medals than it had won in any previous Olympics. Team USA is second in gold medals with 29.

Although America still has more overall medals than China, 95 to 83 through the 13th day of competition, the Chinese government-run sports program will no doubt claim these games as a huge victory. But it turns out that China’s success doesn’t have a whole lot to do with Project 119.

In fact, China might finish with fewer gold medals in swimming, track, and outdoor water sports than it had in 2004. The swimming competition ended with China winning just one gold medal, in the women’s 200-meter butterfly. So far in track and field, China has no gold medals. And although the Chinese have had some success in outdoor water sports, that success has been fairly limited: a gold and a silver in women’s rowing, and a gold and a bronze in women’s sailing.

The reality is that China leads the gold medal count because this year it got better at other sports. China was long seen as a budding gymnastics power, and this was the year it finally came to fruition: After winning just one gymnastics gold in Athens, the Chinese won nine in Beijing, including seven of the eight men’s gymnastics gold medals.

The Chinese also improved their already powerful weight-lifting program, winning eight gold medals this year after taking five home from Athens. The Chinese diving program has won all seven gold medals awarded so far, with one event remaining. China also won five gold medals in shooting, three apiece in badminton and judo, two gold medals in trampoline, and two (with two likely to go) in table tennis.

If anything, the Project 119 sports have been a disappointment for China, especially track and field, where China’s best and most popular athlete, 110-meter hurdler Liu Xiang, had to pull out with an injury and couldn’t defend his 2004 gold medal. The Chinese failed to qualify for even the semifinals of any sprint, and their distance runners have largely fallen short of expectations. So far in track and field, China has only two medals of any kind, winning the bronze in the women’s marathon and the women’s hammer throw.

Overall, Project 119 hasn’t worked. And yet the Chinese are still the gold medal leaders. Which means that if China can ever win a substantial share of the Project 119 gold medals at future Olympic Games, Team USA might have to get used to ranking second in the gold medal standings.

Mr. Smith is a writer for Fanhouse.com.