Five-time Olympic gold medal winner Michael Johnson has started work in his bid to make China's athletes more competitive, but admitted that miracles would not happen overnight.

　　The low-profile American track legend, who holds world records in the 200m and 400m, is giving talks and trackside guidance to China's Athens-bound Olympics team until Friday in a program sponsored by Nike.

　　He told reporters in Beijing that as the first foreign coach to help train in China he doesn't have the ability to transform Chinese track and field overnight.

　　Johnson said he hopes to come back to China before the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing to make a contribution.

　　Johnson will give lectures in the mornings then move to the training ground in the afternoons.

　　China acknowledges there is a huge gap between the country's top level athletes and the world's best, but with the Olympics in Beijing in 2008 it wants at least to be on a more competitive footing.

　　Its main medal hopefuls in Athens are top hurdler Liu Xiang, who recently broke the Asian 110-meter hurdles, and women's long distance runner Sun Yingjie, a world championship 5,000m bronze medallist.

　　The 36-year-old flew into Beijing late last week on his own, in sharp contrast to the last American star sportsman in China, Michael Jordan, who jetted in last month for a slick promotional tour that garnered huge attention.