On Wednesday night, in Shenyang, an hour's flight north of Beijing, the women's football competition kicked off. An undistinguished goalless draw between Brazil and Germany was watched by a crowd of 20,000. Meanwhile more than 23,000 people turned out to watch Argentina lose to Canada in Tianjin. These, remember, were women's football matches, events that normally stir the public interest about as much as pro-celebrity paint drying. Yet they drew crowds unprecedented in Olympic history.
We should not be surprised. In 112 years no Games have been so eagerly anticipated by the hosts, no tickets so voraciously snapped up. For the past seven years, ever since it was revealed that Beijing were to take charge of 2008, the Chinese have been told that this would be the most important moment in their history – far more significant to a modern, commercial country than revolutions both proletarian and cultural.
Through tableaux, firecrackers and human pyramids of spangly clad acrobats, tonight's opening ceremony will make enormous play of the nation's past. But there will be no mention of anything from the last 100 years; no hint of a five-year plan or little red book. The name Mao will be conspicuous by its absence, a haunting gap at the heart of the proceedings. It is as if none of that ever happened. For the consumption of a global television audience of billions, the Games are to be presented as the apex of 4,000 years of civilisation. Nothing else now matters.
Whipped up for nearly a decade by such insistence, the locals here are, in the words of Liam Gallagher, mad for it. A nation that less than 20 years ago was gripped by post-Tiananmen paranoia, treating foreigners with suspicion and scowls, has been sent to collective charm school. Smiles swathe the place. No one can do enough for the visiting thousands.
I have been asked about 40 times by volunteers working at the Olympic Park if I have a ticket for the opening ceremony, an event generally regarded in the west as a comical, yawn-inducing adjunct to the real thing. When I say that I have, I am treated as if I am in possession of tablets of stone.
All this week, at every press conference involving athletes and coaches, amid the usual queries about hamstrings and training preparation, a local journalist is guaranteed to pipe up: "What do you think of our Beijing Olympics?" So far, the answer has been the one they want to hear.
"You go to most venues and you usually find something wrong," said Dave Brailsford, the performance director for British cycling. "But there is nothing wrong here. It makes you want to race. It is very, very exciting."
Michael Phelps, the swimmer who will probably be the star of the Games, was equally effusive. "These are the best facilities I've competed in and the nicest dorms, definitely," he said. "The [athletes] village is cool. There's grass and sculptures everywhere. It's a really nice environment."
The veteran American swimmer Dara Torres made the local smile stretch so far it was in danger of requiring surgery. "I've been going to the Olympics for 24 years," she said, "and I think China's done an awesome job – the best. I brought my own sheets and towels and stuff because I've been in villages before. But they went straight in the closet. It's like you're in a Marriott. The facilities are fantastic. I'm really excited to be part of it."
Not even the most determined professional grouch (and there are plenty of them in the press corps) can find cause for complaint. Everything from the condition of the velodrome floor to the landscaping beside the white-water canoeing course has been designed to thrill. And there is a purpose behind this perfection. This is sport as a commercial statement. The message is, 'If you want the best place to do business, come to China, after all, look at how we staged our Games.'
For those watching on television around the globe, the happy consequence will be that, over the next 16 days, in wonderful venues, before huge crowds, relaxed and content athletes will perform as never before. From first gun to last ring of the bell we are in for a treat. That, at least, is the plan. Nothing can go wrong now. Can it?
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