BEIJING (AFP) - With raucous chants of "Jia You", Chinese fans have created an electric atmosphere inside many Olympic venues and dampened fears that unruly spectators would tarnish the nation's image.

After six days of competition, praise for the Chinese fans who turn up at venues in their thousands waving national flags and pennants, clapping, stomping and shouting, has been almost universal.

The Olympic fever inside the venues is clearly a factor in China's runaway lead in the gold medal standings with Chinese athletes getting a tangible boost from the roar of fanatical crowds.

After China's women beat the United States in a tight contest for the team title in gymnastics, team coach Lu Shanzhen credited the power of home support for lifting the team to victory.

"The great atmosphere here in China allowed everyone to be filled with enthusiasm and good morale," said Lu.

Non-Chinese competitors are also enjoying and benefitting from the highly-charged atmosphere and the non-stop chants of "Jia You", which roughly translates as "Let's Go".

US gymnast Joey Hagerty was buzzing after appearing before the biggest and most vocal audience of his life.

"The crowd was unbelievable, they were cheering very loud, it was great fun," he said after competing for the US team .

Opposing teams note, too, that patriotic Chinese crowds are good humoured and their enthusiasm has not spilled over into anti-foreign nationalism.

In the past, particularly in competition against Japan, an ugly side of Chinese sporting nationalism has often emerged.

Japan invaded and occupied parts of China in the 1930s and that past aggression still triggers passionate resentment here. That was on show in February this year at the East Asian football championships in Chongqing, China, when they booed Japanese players and showered Japanese supporters and players with trash thrown onto the pitch.

There has been no recurrence during the Games, although booing the opposition in basketball, a tradition in China, is alive and well. Every time a Spanish player touched the ball during a preliminary men's game against China this week, the crowd let rip with cat-calls and boos.

When China played the United States, however, it was hard to know which was the home team. NBA players are idolised in China and it was noticeable that during the Olympic Games opening ceremony last Friday, the crowd cheered loud and long for US NBA star Kobe Bryant.

The US team, which is the key rival of China for overall victory in the medal chase at the Games, also got a long burst of sporting applause with swimming icon Michael Phelps treated to a special ovation.

Two years ago the Chinese government was so worried about the potential for crowd trouble tarnishing the Olympics that it launched a crash course in sports etiquette and cheers squads were sent to factories, schools and offices across Beijing to educate the Chinese in how to behave at Olympic events.

At the opening ceremony, special cheer squads fanned out through the 91,000 National Stadium, telling the crowd how to cheer and leading them in chanting and clapping.

However, some Chinese fans still have a way to go before mastering the finer points of some competitions.

Chinese number one tennis player Zheng Jie said that she loved the support she was getting from fans but felt she had to tell them to stop cheering at the wrong moments.

"Sometimes they may cheer too early, which will interfere with the players. I hope that next time maybe they can pay attention to that," she said.