Let the Games begin

China. Once one of the most closed off nations on the planet will soon open its doors to the world, inviting an audience of billions to come in and gaze at its capital as some of the greatest athletes of our time fight to reach the pinnacle of their event. The 2008 Olympic Games are set to kick off this week in Beijing with the world focused on this Asian nation's first ever foray into hosting.

But these Olympics will be about more than just athletic achievement. The world is expected to watch China itself to see if it can pull off a successful two weeks without any hitches. There are a lot of roadblocks for this nation of more than a billion to be perceived as pulling off the perfect games.

This isn't like Athens in 2004 when venues were still under construction up until right before the opening ceremony: the aquatics center was expected to have a roof, but that couldn't be completed on time, so it was swimming al fresco in Greece. No, all of that seems done in Beijing, but the bigger issue is the city itself.

Beijing is one of the most polluted cities in the world, with a thick haze that permeates everywhere at all hours of the day. I visited there in 2000 just about a year before the games were officially awarded to the city, and I couldn't believe the amount of smog that is everywhere. I don't think I saw the sun once.

Just walking around for a few hours outside would cause our group to cough and hack due to the air pollution. I can't imagine what it would be like to actually compete outside there. Can you imagine running a marathon in that kind of weather?

The U.S. cycling team actually emerged from their plane this week donning breathing masks which they have been asked to wear whenever not on the bike. This could be a nightmare of epic proportions.

Even the swimming events may face some problems at the indoor aquatics center, affectionately known as the Water Cube, which is a gorgeous feat of architectural design. While the building and pools are supposed to be state of the art, it's been reported that the pollution has actually made its way into the building, causing problems for some of the swimmers.

The Australian swim team hit the pool earlier in the week and reported literally a hazy cloud over the pool giving them respiratory problems. That can't be good for one of the marquee teams in one of the marquee events.

Qingdao, the city on the Yellow Sea that is to play host to the sailing events had to struggle to clean a massive red tide bloom that engulfed the harbor earlier in the summer. Supposedly it's good to go now, but red tide has the potential to come up at a moment's notice.

Then there's that whole human rights issue. The country has long been slammed by international organizations for its supposed constant violations of a human's inalienable rights. Not to mention a sticky situation with Tibet, causing massive global protests as the Olympic torch made its traverse around the world.

I won't get into the politics of all of this, but it should be pretty interesting to see what, if any, demonstrations pop up during the games. The notoriously censorship-happy government has said they will allow protests throughout the weeks, but my money says that they will be quelled very quickly.

But, hey, these are the Olympics, the most athletic competition in the world. So we shouldn't just dwell on all of the gloom and doom surrounding the contests. For all we know it could all just be a bunch of hype and these could go off without a hitch, like in Sydney in 2000. Those games were praised for being nearly perfect – from the venues to the infrastructure to the competition.

There are a lot of things for Americans to cheer for this year. Clearly the story on most people's minds is whether or not Michael Phelps can win those eight gold medals, besting Mark Spitz's record seven gold haul in Munich in 1972. Possibly the greatest swimmer of all time has already brought home six golds and two bronzes, so this year he's expected to be better than ever before.

The men's basketball team is seemingly back from the dead with a total shift in philosophy since 2004's disastrous third-place campaign. Now, players have to give a commitment to the team of several years, ensuring that the players have ample time to gel in pre-Olympic competitions, rather than being hastily thrown together a few weeks before the games like with the Athens team.

And even though she's not American, how can you not cheer for Natalie du Toit, the South African swimmer destined to become the first amputee to compete in the Summer Olympics. She will compete in the women's 10K swim event and surely will have a lot more than just her countrymen on her side.

It's stories like these that make the Olympics special. It's a time when nations can put aside their political, religious, ideological or whatever differences in the name of sport. It's a time where sports like swimming, track and field and gymnastics – never near the national radar during any other time – can become marquee events to bring this country together. Many of these sports are huge in other countries, but many of those countries do not possess the various sports leagues like the NBA and NFL that we have here.

We're a nation that loves our sports celebrities, and although many of the stars of the lesser sports are not known coming into the games, if they do something memorable, they will forever be in the pantheon of national heroes.

Personally, I'm looking forward the most to basketball, swimming, soccer, track, sailing and all paddling events (mainly whitewater kayaking), but I know that I'll try and make time to watch a little bit of everything because NBC is streaming pretty much every event online making it all the easier to enjoy these global games.

So while there is a lot of negative press heading into Beijing, don't let it set a big cloud over you when it comes to the Olympics (no pun intended). The Olympics are incredible and everyone should watch.
- www.gwinnettherald.com

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