Tracking China: Olympic Expedition in London Plus the Games So Far

After two months on the road, the Brazilian expats made it to London in time for the Opening Ceremony. Now with the buildup over, how are the Olympics going? China’s been leading in the medal count, setting records and stirring up controversy, and getting some support from furry friends back home.

China’s been at the top of the leader board since the start of the Games. Though they’ve now got company in the form of the US, they're well ahead in the number of golds. The sports in which China has received first-place medals include diving (2), gymnastics (1), shooting (2), swimming (2) and weightlifting (2).

The unofficial medal for the most controversial win goes to Ye Shiwen, the 16-year-old who set a world record with her 400m individual medley swim, touching the wall nearly three seconds before the second-place winner. Her speed has raised eyebrows for being a five-second jump on her qualifying time. Some observers were congratulatory, like competitor Elizabeth Beisel and American gold-medalist Ryan Lochte, while the executive director of the World Swimming Coaches Association suggested that "every time we see something ... 'unbelievable' ... it turns out later on there was doping involved."

Going forward, Ye Shiwen will swim the 200m IM early tomorrow around 3:45am (8:43pm GMT). I'm sure everybody will be watching to see if she can pull off another record-breaking swim.

It’s not just the Chinese athletes who are putting up impressive numbers. During the Opening Ceremony, China set the standard with more than 114 million microblogging messages. People aren’t the only fans in China. BeijingCream found this llama who apparently is Liu Xiang’s top fan.

What can we expect today? China has a good chance of adding to its medal tally. Some events to watch (all Beijing times) will be:

• Chen Ruolin and Wang Hao in the women's 10m synchronized dive at 10pm
• The women's gymnastics finals at 11.30pm
• Yin Chen in the 200m butterfly at approximately 2.50am
• And Ye Shiwen in the 200m individual medley at 3.45am

Should we expect a lot of sick calls tomorrow?

Photos: OlympicExpedition.com, London2012.com, thenextweb.com, beijingcream.com