BEIJING: Euphoric Chinese crowds chanting “Go Olympics, Go Beijing” cheered the Olympic flame through Tiananmen Square yesterday at the end of its troubled global relay.
Foreign protesters tried to spoil the party by unfurling “Free Tibet” banners from poles near the main “Bird’s Nest” venue where the Games open tomorrow.
Police rushed to detain the two Britons and two Americans, and stopped other public protests during the day.
Most of the 10,500 athletes from 205 countries have now arrived. The first competition — women’s soccer — started last night, giving Chinese fans the first chance to show their Olympics fervor.
Men’s soccer, which has drawn Brazil’s Ronaldinho and may also figure Argentina’s Lionel Messi, starts today. Then at the weekend, the eagerly awaited swimming competition begins in the new “Water Cube” pool, another shimmering landmark for the Olympics. American Michael Phelps is seeking to smash compatriot Mark Spitz’s 1972 record of seven golds in one Games.
In Tiananmen Square, Beijing’s symbolic heart best-known to the world for the crushing of 1989 student protests, one of China’s most famous sportsmen, 7ft 6in basketball player Yao Ming, held the flame above a sea of beaming faces.
Though not fully fit, NBA player Yao will lead China’s team when basketball starts at the weekend, also featuring a US squad pumped to avenge missing gold in Athens four years ago. Children wore “I Love China” T-shirts and workers waved flags and pom-poms, while drums and cymbals resounded around Tiananmen under a portrait of late revolutionary leader Mao Zedong.
China’s Communist leaders hope such images of the torch’s final passage through the host city will help banish memories of Tibet protests dogging the flame in Paris, London and elsewhere. So police were quick to react to yesterday’s Tibet protest, taking 12 minutes to remove the four, according to state media. Police also banned US swimmer Amanda Beard from holding a pro-animal rights news conference. Instead, she took to the street to unveil a nude photo of herself saying “Don’t wear fur.” And in a clutch of such political statements yesterday, three Americans shouted against China’s population control policies in Tiananmen before police intervened, while a Tibet film got a secretive premier to reporters in a dingy hotel room. The Games have given China an unprecedented chance to showcase its modern face and economic progress but have also galvanized critics of its human rights record.
Demonstrations around the torch’s international legs offended many Chinese, who see the Games as a moment of national pride for a nation some view as the emerging 21st century superpower.
Some $18 billion of cleanup measures have reduced contamination to safe levels, according to Olympics chiefs, but not produced the sunshine and blue skies China longs for. Anxious US cyclists arrived with facemasks on, though that drew disapproval from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) which said it was unnecessary. The athletes later apologized.
Brazilian soccer coach Dunga was in a flap over the food served to his multi-millionnaire players. “When you ask the chef to change the menu, he has to talk to his boss, who has to talk to his boss ... and by that time the Olympics are over.”
Other Olympians were in a more mellow mood. Italian weightlifter Giorgio de Luca wound down in flip-flops after a tough gym session with a surreptitious cigarette. “I’d say 70 out of 100 athletes in the Olympic village smoke,” he said, perhaps exaggerating a little.
And while most teams tuck themselves away, Jamaica’s athletes had a night out at a jazz club to mark their Independence Day. Big names abound, with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, for example, bringing their long-running tennis rivalry to China. To protect the athletes and guard against terrorism or protests, a 100,000-strong force is on hand in Beijing.
Authorities intensified security this week after suspected separatists attacked a group of jogging policemen with homemade explosives, killing 16, in the far west.
Perennial Olympic powerhouse Russia was in the limelight for all the wrong reasons after a series of athletes’ drug suspensions drew accusations of “systematic doping” by the IOC.
On another of China’s international sore points due to its ties with Sudan, Team Darfur, a coalition of athletes seeking to draw attention to the conflict there, said Beijing had revoked the visa of its co-founder and Olympic gold medalist Joey Cheek.
He called his visa denial “part of a systemic effort by the Chinese government to coerce and threaten athletes who are speaking out on behalf of the innocent people of Darfur.”
