Click here to see a link to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
BEIJING — All it takes is one step into this city’s brand-new, massive, futuristic airport to realize the world is about to witness the most grandiose Olympics ever staged, a $40 billion coming-out party for a nation desperate to establish itself as an economic and athletic superpower.
A seemingly-limitless army of smiling volunteers is on hand to greet and help visitors, part of a Herculean effort to transform the once-drab Chinese capital into a friendly, colorful tourist destination.
Tens of thousands of red and yellow flower beds line the bustling streets, Olympic banners hang everywhere, and ornate sports-themed topiary decorates the Olympic Green, the epicenter of the competition, where the cutting-edge Bird’s Nest stadium and bubble-skinned aquatic center loom over enormous plazas soon to be packed with fans.
The festivities officially begin at precisely 8:08.08 p.m. Beijing time (this morning EDT) on 8/8/08 because eight is considered a lucky number in China. In fact, 16,400 Beijing couples applied to be married on this special day for the same reason.
Beijing organizers are hoping good fortune will help deliver a pollution-free, protest-free, and drug-free Olympics, but like their sports hero, Liu Xiang, they face a daunting series of hurdles in the days ahead.
Despite drastic efforts to produce blue skies, which included the closing of factories and removal of more than a million cars from the city streets, the smog thickened on the eve of the Games.
Despite demanding the Olympics be apolitical, the international media, and President George W. Bush, have taken the Chinese to task in recent days for their human rights breaches.
Four activists were arrested Wednesday after attempting to hang Free Tibet banners from lampposts, two Japanese journalists were roughed up earlier in the week in Western China for reporting on a clash between police and Muslim minorities, and U.S. Olympic gold medal speedskater Joey Cheek, an activist for Darfur, was denied entry to China.
U.S. athletes have indicated they will keep politics out of the Games, but they made a powerful statement by selecting Sudanese refugee Lopez Lomong as their flag bearer over more famous Olympians such as swimmers Michael Phelps and Dara Torres, or NBA star Kobe Bryant.
Lomong, one of Sudan’s Lost Boys, was separated from his parents at gunpoint when he was 6, and wound up in a refugee camp in Kenya, where he lived for 10 years before going to the United States in 2001 as part of a program to relocate lost youth from war-torn Sudan.
Among the other 201 nations’ flag bearers are Swiss tennis star Roger Federer, German NBA player Dirk Nowitzki, and Chinese basketball icon Yao Ming.
The identity of the Olympic cauldron lighter remained a closely guarded secret Thursday night. It isn’t likely to be Yao or Liu because both carried the torch during the relay and traditionally, nobody carries the torch twice.
Security will be particularly tight for the Opening Ceremonies as 80 visiting heads of state, including President Bush, French president Nicolas Sarkozy, and Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin, settle in for a three-and-a-half hour extravaganza that promises to be over-the-top, even by Olympic standards.
Set against the backdrop of ancient temples and dazzling skyscrapers, the ceremony will bridge nearly 5,000 years of Chinese history and feature 20,000 performers, kung fu, Peking Opera, acrobats, pandas and Terracotta Warriors. The show will end with 35,000 fireworks and photos of 2008 smiling faces from around the world projected onto the night sky.
Speaking of big, NBC paid $900 million to own the rights to these politically charged Olympics, and the investment gave the network enough clout to tweak the schedule to make it prime-time friendly for the United States audience.
Swimming and gymnastics were moved from evening to morning Beijing time so they can be shown between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. Eastern time.
“It might affect the times because it’s the morning and nobody’s used to swimming then, but everyone’s on the same playing field and truth is, nobody remembers times anyway,” NBC swimming announcer Rowdy Gaines, a former Olympian, said. ”It’s the Olympics and all that matters is who wins the medals.”
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